DELAWAEE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 17 



Ruffed Grouse drumming. As we climbed toward the second 

 tree a big male Pileated Woodpecker flew down the mountain- 

 side with a long,- gliding flight. As it flew it gave its unmis- 

 takable call "Kek, kek, kek, kek, kek-o," something like a 

 Flicker with a little quirk at the end. It did not seem to be 

 so large as the first Pileated that we saw. It alighted on a 

 tree fifty yards away and I could distinctly see its great red 

 head and crest. The throat and a line from the bill on each 

 side of the neck and breast together with the lining of the 

 wings and the base of the larger wing feathers were white 

 slightly tinged with yellow. The upper part of the head of the 

 male, including its heavy pointed crest and mustaches, were a 

 bright red. The female had only the rear of the head red with 

 the rest of the head, including the mustaches, black. As we 

 came near the female bird flew out, giving a different call — 

 ''Kek, kek, kek, kek, kek-e-ku". She looked as if she wore 

 a red hat with a feather and when she preened herself with her 

 great bill on the tree where she alighted, it was like watching a 

 man shave himself with a sword. 



The third nest we found in the depths of a swamp in a pig- 

 nut hickory fifty-five feet high. The bird stuck her head out 

 and flew away before the tree was reached. The nest was first 

 located on March 30 at which time the bird had evidently been 

 working on it for some time. The chips were widely scat- 

 tered. The bird lit against the sky and I had a fine view 

 of it. Neither the second nor the third birds seemed to be as 

 large or impressive as the first. The third bird gave another 

 note unlike the nesting-call, a kind of screeching call — " Shrr, 

 shrr, shrr, shrr". She flew all around us three times, coming 

 nearer and nearer. Finally she lit on the tree over our heads 

 and went into a hole, something which Harlow said he had never 

 seen before. She had the fringed black wings of a crow and 

 bopped up toward the nest awkwardly. When we tapped the 

 tree out came a great head with a black-striped throat. Then 

 the male gave a fiercer and louder call; and as he came near the 

 female answered him with a note like the * ' whick, whick ' ' of 

 a Fhcker, only louder. Harlow had hunted in that particular 

 xavine for four years but had never even seen a Pileated there 



