DESCRIPTIVE LIST 193 



The former subspecies is the bird found throughout the State, and the one to 

 which the measurements given under the head of the species belong, while the 

 latter may possibly occur on the higher mountains. 



The Pileated Woodpecker, commonly known in this State as the Logcock, or 

 Woodcock, and occasionally called "Good-god," is still a fairly common bird 

 throughout North Carolina in all heavily wooded regions, and is found sparingly 

 even in Wake County, one of the most thickly settled parts of the State. Pearson 

 saw it occasionally on the campus of the State University at Chapel Hill fifteen 

 years ago, and records one especially which he watched for some time on November 

 8, 1899. (Catalogue of the Birds of Chapel Hill, page 41.) 



It is a wild, shy bird, well able to care for itself and keep out of the way of aggres- 

 sive and murderous mankind. 



FIG. 151. PILEATED WOODPECKER. 



At Lake Ellis, in Craven County, we have not infrequently watched one digging 

 for food in some decayed log, and the blows it would strike on such occasions were 

 terrific. The noise of one at work can often be heard a quarter of a mile or more, 

 and the sound cannot be confounded with that made by any other woodpecker now 

 occurring in the State. Its voice, too, is equally resonant. 



The nesting habits are similar to those of other woodpeckers, except that the 

 excavations are often three or four feet in depth. The bird is said to nest gener- 

 ally in living trees, but Pearson found three nests in Guilford County, all of which 

 were in dead trees. The eggs are from three to five in a set, white in color, as 

 usual in the family. Size about 1.25 x .95. 



The food of this bird consists of insects (many of them the larvae of wood-boring 

 beetles), varied with berries in fall and winter. 



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