PILEATED WOODPECKER. 75 



ing to procure one, for the same purpose of proving its identity with 

 others elsewhere seen. 



Their natural wildness never leaves them, even although they may 

 have been reared from the nest. I will give you an instance of this, as 

 related to me by my generous friend the Reverend John Bachman of 

 Charleston, who also speaks of the cruelty of the species. " A pair of 

 Fileated Woodpeckers had a nest in an old elm tree, in a swamp which 

 they occupied that year ; the next spring early, two Blue Birds took pos- 

 session of it, and there had young. Before these were half grown, the 

 Woodpeckers returned to the place, and, despite of the cries and reiterat- 

 ed attacks of the Blue Birds, the others took the young, not very gently, 

 as you may imagine, and carried them away to some distance. Next the 

 nest itself was disposed of, the hole cleaned and enlarged, and there they 

 raised a brood. The nest, it is true, was originally their own. The tree 

 was large, but so situated, that, from the branches of another I could 

 reach the nest. The hole was about 18 inches deep, and I could touch 

 the bottom with my hand. The eggs, which were laid on fragments 

 of chips, expressly left by the birds, were six, large, white and trans- 

 lucent. Before the Woodpeckers began to sit, I robbed them of their 

 eggs, to see if they would lay a second time. They waited a few days 

 as if undecided, when on a sudden I heard the female at work affain in 



o 



the tree ; she once more deepened the hole, made it broader at bottom, 

 and recommenced laying. This time she laid five eggs. I suffered her 

 to bring out her young, both sexes alternately incubating, each visiting 

 the other at intervals, peeping into the hole to see that all was right and 

 well there, and flying off afterwards in search of food. 



When the young were sufficiently grown to be taken out with safety, 

 which I ascertained by seeing them occasionally peeping out of the hole, 

 I carried them home, to judge of their habits in confinement, and at- 

 tempted to raise them. I found it exceedingly difficult to entice them to 

 open their bill in order to feed them. They were sullen and cross, nay, 

 three died in a few days ; but the others, having been fed on grasshoppers 

 forcibly introduced into their mouths, were raised. In a short time they 

 began picking up the grasshoppers thrown into their cage, and were fully 

 fed with corn-meal, which they preferred eating dry. Their whole em- 

 ployment consisted in attempting to escape from their prison, regularly 

 demolishing one every two days, although made of pine boards of toler- 

 able thickness. I at last had one constructed with oak boards at the back 



