The Pileated Woodpecker 
By ERNEST WATERS VICKERS 
With photographs by the author 
O far as his continental occupancy 
is concerned, this great black 
Woodpecker is doomed. . Civiliza- 
tion is banishing him to a few inaccessible 
happy hunting- grounds; the shrieking 
moan of a thousand portable saw-mills 
are already hymning his requiem. He 
cannot live on the selvage, like the Crow, 
or find new prospects and privileges 
under civilization’s newly imposed con- 
ditions, as have the Robin and Flicker; 
but must share a fate common with the 
primeval forest, since his life is part and 
parcel with the untamable spirit that 
haunts the wilderness. And in a land 
where liberty spells the right to carry a 
gun and destroy every creeping and flying 
thing, his end is only the more certain. 
According to reports from all sec- 
tions east of the Mississippi and south of 
the Great Lakes, this ‘great northern 
chief of his tribe,’ as Alexander Wilson 
styles him, is disappearing or has already 
SUGAR MAPLE, SHOWING THE : : 
EXCAVATIONS MADE BY THE PILE. 0Ne; so that bird-lovers tramp miles to 
ATED WOODPECKER. Ellsworth, Ohio. secure a glimpse of his vanishing forms, 
and publish him in their notes with enthusiastic gladness. 
The writer has been familiar with this bird in northeastern Ohio for more 
than a dozen years, and here he has held his own, despite the growth in popula- 
tion and rapid deforestation that have taken place in that length of time. 
To study the Log-cock in his haunts is a memorable experience, which words 
fail to describe. It kindles enthusiasm to the superlative degree. 
Search the bird-books if you would gain an idea of his outward appearance, 
but it is of his very spirit that we would give a glimpse. An animus of wild, 
dashing joy, full of nervous, tireless, almost impatient industry; utter aloofness 
from all man-made things; loud, ringing, derisive laughter; vigorous, straight- 
away flight, bearing that chisel-beak firmly set on his short-necked powerful head, 
—thus with his brief, flowing crest he suggests the Kingfisher, as he dashes across 
alternate patches of light and shade with cackling laughter. Every movement 
suggests a personality of unusual vim and poise and independent power. He 
(57) 
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