84 



THE OOLOGIST 



When I arrived at State College, 

 some six years since, I soon discover- 

 ed that the surrounding mountain side 

 held many good things but their dist- 

 ance from College and the character 

 of the country made short trips almost 

 an impossibility. The Woodpeckers 

 seemed limited to the big slashings of 

 the mountain country and the timber- 

 ed swamps. Frequently I saw the 

 birds but the great distance which 

 they travel made it exceedingly diffi 

 cult to trace them to their homes. At 

 last in the spring of 1912, I located a 

 pair in March that were drilling a hole 

 in a big, dead sugar maple in a dense 

 wooded swamp some four miles from 

 the College. All during March and 

 April the female bird could be found 

 working at the hole while the male 

 kept guard near by and warned her 

 with his flicker-like calls. 



About April 20, the female appear- 

 ed to be sitting but I gave her ten 

 days more and when I climbed the tree 

 on April 30, the action of the female 

 made me almost sure that there were 

 eggs. However I wanted to be sure 

 and as the location of the nest pro- 

 hibited the use of a mirror or the cut- 

 ting out of a small piece of wood, I 

 still left the nest. On May 2d, I re- 

 turned and flushed the female from 

 the hole. On climbing up the danger- 

 ous, dead stub and cutting out the 

 hole, my chagrin may well be imagin- 

 ed when I found but two pearly white 

 fresh eggs. The hole was of course 

 ruined and the birds left though they 

 were very fearless about the nest. 

 The hole was two feet deep and went 

 straight in for six inches before it 

 turned down into the heart of the tree. 

 The distance to the ground was forty 

 feet. In 1913 this swamp was all cut 

 out and no trace of the woodpeckers 

 could be found. 



In 1912 I also located a pair in a 

 dense slashing in Hundington County 



some fourteen miles from College, but 

 was unable to find the nest. Early in 

 1913 I located this pair again and 

 found them working on a tree near 

 the edge of a swamp. On May 7th, 

 Mr. Samuel Dickey and myself went 

 to this swamp and Mr. Dickey found 

 the nest, with four fresh eggs, record- 

 ed in a recent number of THE OOLO- 

 GIST. Several other pairs were locat- 

 ed but no further nests were found at 

 this time. 



I had about given up hopes for any 

 further success with the Pileated 

 Woodpecker during this year when I 

 took a trip to La Anna, Pike County, 

 on May 16. Here in the Pocono Moun- 

 tains I knew the birds nested but they 

 were extremely wary and rare and 

 the large wooded areas amply conceal- 

 ed the few nesting pairs. 



On the morning of May 18, after at- 

 tending Sunday School, I walked up 

 a little path through a small section 

 of primeval Hemlock and hardwoods 

 to visit a couple of nests I had found 

 previously. First I stopped at a Win- 

 ter Wren's nest under the roots of 

 an upturned Hemlock but it was emp- 

 ty and the lining was partly torn out. 

 A little farther on I stopped to in- 

 spect a beautiful nest of the North- 

 ern Water Thrush holding three eggs. 

 As I neared the upper end of the woods 

 I was surprised to hear the ringing 

 call of the Pileated Woodpecker. I 

 started looking about and in a few mo- 

 ments saw a large hole seventy feet 

 up in a partly dead top of a Sugar 

 Maple. In response to a hurried 

 thump on the tree a scarlet crested 

 head appeared at the hole. After din- 

 ner I changed my clothes and procur- 

 ing a large leather strap, returned to 

 the tree with my fiance. It was fifty 

 feet to the first limb and I could not 

 reach half way around the trunk but 

 I wanted that nest. Now it is quite 

 a job to take two hundred and twenty 



