The Pileated Woodpecker 59 
special delight, he drives holes to the very heart of growing forest trees, tapping 
the central chamber of the colony, where, in winter, he finds the dormant swarm 
unable to move and feasts upon them at leisure. This habit of riddling trees has 
caused the inobservant to condemn him for a timber destroyer; which is as great 
a mistake as to conclude that all Woodpeckers are Sapsuckers because one had 
the habit of puncturing the bark and drinking sap. A tree containing an ant 
colony is already doomed. And the Log-cock makes no mistakes, though man 
might find no outward sign of an ant-tree. Doubtless that strong formic smell, 
coupled with his experience in sounding tree trunks,—as a man tells a ripe 
watermelon by the plunk of it—enables him not only to find the tree, but, what 
is more remarkable, to drive his hole with such precision that he taps the heart 
of the community. 
This illustration of a maple tree, a foot in diameter, will give some idea of 
such excavations as this feathered wood-cutter will make in order to indulge his 
fondness for ants. The largest of the four holes was 7 inches long, 2% inches wide, 
and 7 inches deep. The next in size was 62 inches long, 24 inches wide and 7 
inches deep. All four holes passed through 3 to 5 inches of sound wood each. 
If any man were given a small gouge or chisel and a light mallet, and forced to 
cut such a series of holes, he would rightly feel that he had quite a task before 
him. But here was a bird doing the work with no tools but his beak. 
These holes also record the retreat of the surviving ants upward in the tree, 
or its occupancy by another swarm. The involution of new bark, clearly shown 
in the illustration, about the two lower holes proves that they were made the winter 
" previous, while the upper two were excavated late the following summer or after 
the spring growth. Two more holes on the south side of the tree, which do not 
show in the illustration, the lower of which is eight and one-half inches above the 
highest hole shown on the east side, were made the following autumn. Hence 
it would appear that each time of revisitation H-ylotomus (or Ceophleus, as we 
now call him) found that the survivors had retreated a little higher, and followed 
them up. Thus, in a way like a landlord, he goes his rounds and collects his rent. 
This illustration of the Log-cock’s work is not a show specimen; numbers can 
be found in his range to equal or surpass it. We have seen sugar-maple, soft 
sugars, basswood or linden, wild cherry and various species of ash, operated 
upon in this way by the Pileated Woodpecker. 
