THE WOODPECKER. 375 



insects which lie concealed in the husk. I will not be positive 

 that they never occasionally taste maize ; yet I have opened 

 and examined great numbers of these birds, killed in various 

 parts of the United States, from lake Ontario to the Alata- 

 maha river, but never found a grain of Indian corn in their 

 stomachs. 



The Pileated Woodpecker is not migratory, but braves the 

 extremes of both the artic and torrid regions. Neither is he 

 gregarious, for it is rare to see more than one or two, or at 

 the most three, in company. 



Their nest is built, or rather the eggs are deposited, in the 

 hole of a tree, dug out by themselves, no other materials being 

 used but the soft chips of rotten wood. The female lays six 

 large eggs of a snowy whiteness ; and, it is said, they generally 

 raise two broods in the same season. 



This species is eighteen inches long, and twenty-eight in 

 extent ; the general color is a dusky brownish black ; the 

 head is ornamented with a conical cap of bright scarlet ; two 

 scarlet mustaches proceed from the lower mandible ; the chin 

 is white ; the nostrils are covered with brownish white hair- 

 like feathers, and this stripe of white passes thence down the 

 side of the neck to the sides, spreading under the wings ; the 

 upper half* of the wings are white, but concealed by the black 

 coverts ; the lower extremities of the wings are black ; so that 

 the white on the wing is not seen but when the bird is flying, 

 at which time it is very prominent ; the tail is tapering, the 

 feathers being very convex above and strong ; the legs are of 

 a leaden gray color, very short, scarcely half an inch, the toes 

 very long, the claws strong and semicircular, and of a pale 

 blue ; the bill is fluted, sharply ridged, very broad at the base, 

 bluish black above, below and at the point bluish white ; the 

 eye is of a bright golden color ; the pupil black ; the tongue, 

 like those of its tribe, is worm-shaped, except near the tip, 

 where for one-eighth of an inch it is horny, pointed, and beset 

 with barbs. J 



The female has the forehead, and nearly to the crown, of 

 a light brown color, and the mustaches are dusky instead of 



