THE OODOGIST 



65 



birds, and, during the blizzard of 

 March 1-2, they ventured into the city 

 and fed in back yards and in gardens. 

 Many frequented the city dumping 

 grounds and found an abundance of 

 food among the refuse. 



Will the Starling prove to be such 

 an obnoxious pest as the House Spar- 

 row? I am afraid it will become a 

 worse nuisance. If they continue to 

 multiply and increase in the next few 

 years as they have during the past 

 several seasons, we shall have Star- 

 lings by the millions. 



I think they are going to be a ser- 

 ious nuisance to our city nesting birds 

 as they nest earlier than any of our 

 birds that nest in holes and preempt 

 all such places by being permanent 

 residents. 



Richard F. Miller. 



The Pileated Woodpecker in South- 

 western Pennsylvania. 

 In the wilder and less frequented 

 parts of South-western Pennsylvania 

 a few pairs of the Pileated Woodpeck- 

 ers are still found. During late sum- 

 mer and early fall hunters for squir- 

 rels report having seen four or five 

 of these birds in the larger clumps of 

 woodland. A friend of mine, who lives 

 some twenty miles Southwest of Way- 

 nesburg, recently told me that he has 

 seen as many as Ave of these Wood- 

 peckers at a time. He said that late 

 this summer he had seen two birds 

 fly across a deep gully. One he shot 

 Into a bunch of five and killed a single 

 bird. In a deep wooded ravine some 

 three miles from town a pair of Pi- 

 leateds spent their time for several 

 seasons. A friend and I saw the birds 

 picking at some tree trunks so we 

 made a search for the nest. However, 

 "we failed to find it. One snag showed 

 signs of old nesting holes, one of 

 which I examined showed signs of re- 

 cent digging. At another woods an 



old man told me he had seen two birds 

 and had killed one of them. The 

 woods in this section of the country 

 are composed largely of huge white 

 oak trees, many of them over one-hun- 

 dred feet high. In such places the 

 Pileated Woodpeckers would certainly 

 find suitable places to nest. Next 

 spring I intend to make some trips to 

 the larger woods and try to find a 

 nest, and, if possible, secure some 

 photos of a nest and eggs. 



S. S. Dickey. 

 Waynesburg, Pa. 



A card from F. T. Pember of Gran- 

 ville, New York, advises us that he is 

 wintering amid the orange groves of 

 Riverside, California, collecting in- 

 sects and botanical specimens, and 

 that he will go north into the British 

 Columbia country about April 1st. He 

 says "March 16th, I found a Barn Owl's 

 nest with six eggs." 



Pileated Woodpecker of Northern 

 West Virginia. 



Late in July, 1913, in company with 

 some frier ds I went for a fifty mile 

 hike into the mountains bordering the 

 Cheat River of Northern West Vir- 

 ginia. One morning as we ascended 

 a mountain trail I noticed numerous 

 "Diggings" in the trunks of the chest- 

 nut trees which abound there. I knew 

 these injuries to the trees had been 

 caused by the Pileated Woodpeckers. 

 So I kept a close watch for the birds. 

 Towards noon we reached the highest 

 point of the mountain ridge, 2,800 feet 

 above the sea level. As we emerged 

 from a dense growth of young trees 

 two Pileated Woodpeckers flew from 

 the road ahead of us and lit on the 

 trunk of a huge oak tree nearby. Soon 

 one of them took fright and dashed 

 away through the woods; the other 

 bird remained a few moments then 

 hurried after its cackling mate. In 



