WOODPECKERS. 337 



more often perching crosswise than at other times. They 

 occupy their old nests or other cavities as retreats for the 

 night or from very severe weather. They are very hardy, but 

 not unfrequently in winter, during a blinding snow-storm or 

 a pelting rain, one may start them from some decayed tree, 

 on shaking it, or rapping it with one's cane. Should they 

 pass the winter to the southward and return in the spring, 

 they immediately resort to their former lodgings, unless some 

 rude blast has destroyed these, in which case I have known 

 them hurriedly to make an excavation in a neighboring stump. 

 d. Their ordinary note is a chink or chick, which they 

 most often utter on alighting on some tree or fence. Occa- 

 sionally they repeat this rapidly (as chick-a-chick-chick-chick- 

 chick). These notes, unless uttered in anger, seem indicative 

 of the little Woodpecker's contented disposition and constant 

 happiness. 



VI. CEOPHLCBUS. 



A. PILEATUS. Pileated Woodpecker. Black "Log- 

 cock" " Woodcock." In New England, almost entirely con- 

 fined to the " timbered " districts of the north.* 



a. About eighteen inches long. Nearly black; a slight 

 superciliary line, a broad stripe from the bill to the sides, 

 wing-patch, etc., white. Crest, scarlet ; in , black in front. 

 (J , with a scarlet cheek-patch. 



6. " The eggs, which are six in number, average 1.25 X 

 1.00 of an inch, or more." See I, A, b. 



c. The Pileated Woodpeckers are in New England the 



* This fine species cannot apparently In June, 1883, 1 saw a pair of Pileated 

 adapt itself to the changed conditions Woodpeckers on Mt. Graylock, and an- 

 which so speedily follow the settlement other pair was seen by Mr. Purdie, 

 of our country. It is evidently a bird May 31, 1892, on Mount Toby, while 

 of the primeval forest, and is every- Mr. Bailey took two sets of eggs (both 

 where fast retreating before the en- laid by the same bird, however) near 

 croachments of man. Hence, while Winchendon in Worcester County, 

 there can be no doubt that it formerly Massachusetts, in 1890. Throughout 

 bred throughout southern New Eng- the wilder portions of Maine, New 

 land, it is now practically extinct in this Hampshire, and Vermont, these Wood- 

 region, although stragglers are occa- peckers are still common in many 

 sionally shot in autumn or winter in places. W. B. 

 Connecticut and eastern Massachusetts. 



