Pileated Woodpecker 375 



the Pileated Woodpecker is not always the shy bird we sometimes think 

 it to be. One frequently may approach in the open woods to within a 

 few rods of a feeding bird, and often when startled its flight may be of 

 short duration. In some of the southern to\vns where heavy forests are 

 adjacent this species will sometimes come into the groves about dwell- 

 ings. 



\Yhile a student at the University of North Carolina, I remember 

 seeing three on the University campus at one time. Three pairs of the 

 birds constantly inhabited the college woods, a tract of perhaps one 

 hundred acres, which adjoined the campus. Although the nests are often 

 built a considerable distance from the ground, I have found them in 

 Guilford County, North Carolina, at a height not greater than twelve 

 feet, but this was probably exceptional. 



Mr. Arthur T. Wayne, of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, who has 

 spent much time studying the habits of this bird, in his Birds of South 

 Carolina, says: 



"This species uses a certain hole, which it excavates in a living 

 black gum or a living sweet gum tree, in which to sleep, and it is so 

 attached to it that I have known one of these birds to resort for years 

 to the same hole to spend the night. This sleeping-hole is almost always 

 excavated in a tree which is hollow from the base to within a foot of 

 the first limb. Sometimes two holes are bored in the same tree, and if 

 an attempt is made to catch the bird, it can escape by going through 

 either of the holes or else make its exit at the base. 



"If the season is a forward one the birds mate early in February, 

 and towards the latter part of the month they begin to excavate their 

 hole, which requires exactly a month for comple- 

 tion. During the month of March, 1904, I made e 

 observations on a pair which excavated their hole 

 in a dead pine On March 21, the opening was commenced by the 

 female, who drilled a small hole, and by degrees enlarged it to the size 

 of a silver dollar. The male assisted in the excavation, but the female 

 did by far the larger part of the work. The size of the aperture was 

 not increased until necessary to admit the shoulders of the bird. I visited 

 these birds every day in order to note the progress of their work, and, 

 being so accustomed to seeing me, they were utterly fearless and I could, 

 at any time, approach within twenty feet without hindering the work, 

 although the hole was only about thirty feet from the ground. This 

 hole was completed on April 21, and the first egg was laid the following 

 morning. As incubation commences upon the advent of the first egg, 

 and as the eggs are nut laid consecutively, I did not again examine tin- 

 contents of the nest until April 26, when three eggs were found. Upon 

 investigating the cavity on April 28, and finding but three eggs, I con- 

 cluded that the set was complete. In this case the excavation was made 

 under a dead limb, and was about eighteen inches deep, being hollowed 

 out more- on one side than the other. This Woodnecker is so attached 

 to the tree in which it has first made its nest that it continues to cling 



