126 LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS 



huge cotton wood trees, which were perfectly inacessible. 

 Mr. J. K. Lord has met with this species in Vancouver's 

 Island, and southward through Oregon and California. At 

 Colville, British Columbia, near the Columbia River, he has 

 observed it in winter. According to this author, it nests 

 at immense heights, in tall dead pine-trees, during the month 

 of May. 



The eggs of this species seem to vary from five to six in 

 number. Dr. Brewer obtained specimens from Cheraw, 

 S. Ca., which were taken from excavations made at a height 

 of t\venty-five feet, and in rather close proximity to inhabit- 

 ed parts of the country. These eggs were rounded-oval in 

 outline, of a beautiful crystalline whiteness, and measured 

 1.25 by i. 02 inches. 



Picus borealis, VieiU. 



The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is a denizen mainly of 

 the South-eastern Atlantic States, where, among the pine 

 barrens of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, it attains 

 its greatest abundance. In Texas, and in the Indian Terri- 

 tory, it was commonly observed by Dr. Woodhouse. Wilson 

 met with them in Georgia and the Carolinas, but appears 

 not to have studied their habits. Audubon traced it from 

 Texas to New Jersey, and even in the latter state, in the vicin- 

 ity of Hoboken, it has been found by Mr. G. N. Lawrence. 



That it is a rare visitant in Eastern Pennsylvania, cannot 

 be doubted, as an individual was taken a few years since, 

 and is now deposited with the writer. This specimen was 

 shot in Delaware Co., just beyond the southern border of 

 Philadelphia. 



The Red-cockaded Woodpecker delights in pine forests, 

 where it is observed to be a very industrious worker, tap- 

 ping the trunk and branches of trees for the hidden worm, 

 and, occasionally, thrusting its barbed tongue into the fissured 

 bark and transfixing some frightened beetle or spider that 

 lias sought to hide itself from persecutors, or to seek shelter 



