The Pileated Woodpecker 



BY SAMUEL SCOVILLE, JR. 



For every bird student there is always some bird just beyond 

 the horizon which he hopes to meet. This statement of course 

 applies only to the common or garden variety of ornithologists 

 to which I belong. There are some masters who have met 

 everything that sings or flies. Probably the only thing that the 

 future has for Dr. Witmer Stone is the Roc and the Phoenix, 

 and undoubtedly Mr. Samuel Rhoads could describe even 

 those gifted fowls if called upon. 



For a long time the Prothonotary Warbler was the ideal of 

 the writer. After acting as a galley slave for Stuart in a Mary- 

 land marsh my life was at last gladdened by a sight of that vivid 

 bird of gold. Then the Northern Raven took first place in my 

 hopes. A forty-two mile walk and harrying adventures by field 

 and flood with Harlow made that bird a reality (see Atlantic 

 Monthly, July, 1920). This last year I longed exceedingly for 

 a sight of the Pileated Woodpecker, that magnificent wood- 

 pecker surpassed only by the lost Ivory-bill and which I find, 

 in Juniata County, rejoices in the names of the cluck-cock and 

 Indian hen. I always remember the thrill that came over me 

 when on May 20, 1916, at Pocono Lake, Stuart showed me a 

 hemlock tree with twenty-two great square holes like those in 

 bar-ways cut deep in the live wood. He assured me that they 

 were made by the Pileated Woodpecker. Afterwards when he 

 showed me a large woolen nest made by a deer-mouse and told 

 me that it belonged to a Golden-crowned Kinglet, I began to 

 have my doubts about the woodpecker. Later, however, I was 

 to learn that he was right and that the holes were feeding-holes 

 of the Pileated. 



My next experience with this bird was on March 9, 1918. I 



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