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SPECIES 2. PIC US PILEATUS. 

 PILEATED WOODPECKER. 



[Plate XXIX. Fig. 2.] 



Picus pileatus, LATH. Ind. Orn. i, p. 225, 4. LINN. Syst, i, p. 

 173, 3. GMEL.fysf. i, p. 425. Picus niger Virginianus cris- 

 tatus, BRISS. iv, p. 29, 10. Pic noir a huppe rouge, BUFF, vn, 

 p. 48. Pic noir huppe de la Louisiane, PI. Enl. 718. Larger 

 crested Woodpecker, CATESB. Car. i, 17. Pileated Woodpeck- 

 er, Arct. Zool. ii, JVo. 157. LATH. Syn. n, p. 554, 3. Id. Sup. 

 p. 105.- BARTRAM,J?. 289. PEALE'S Museum, No. 1886. 



THIS American species is the second in size among his tribe, 

 and may be styled the Great Northern Chief of the Woodpeck- 

 ers, though, in fact, his range extends over the whole of the Uni- 

 ted States, from the interior of Canada to the gulf of Mexico. 

 He is very numerous in the Gennesee country, and in all the 

 tracts of high-timbered forests, particularly in the neighbourhood 

 of our large rivers, where he is noted for making a loud and al- 

 most incessant cackling before wet weather; flying at such times 

 in a restless uneasy manner from tree to tree, making the woods 

 echo to his outcry. In Pennsylvania, and the northern states, 

 he is called the Black Woodcock; in the southern states, the Log- 

 cock. Almost every old trunk in the forest, where he resides, 

 bears the marks of his chisel. Wherever he perceives a tree 

 beginning to decay, he examines it round and round with great 

 skill and dexterity, strips off the bark in sheets of five or six feet 

 in length to get at the hidden cause of the disease, and labours 

 with a gayety and activity really surprising. I have seen him 

 separate the greatest part of the bark from a large dead pine- 

 tree, for twenty or thirty feet, in less than a quarter of an hour. 



