76 PILEATED WOODPECKER. 



and sides, and rails of the same in front. This was too much for them, 

 and their only comfort was in passing and holding their bills through the 

 hard bars. In the morning after receiving water, which they drank 

 freely, they invariably upset the cup or saucer, and although this was 

 large and flattish, they regularly turned it quite over. After this they 

 attacked the trough which contained their food, and soon broke it to 

 pieces, and when perchance I happened to approach them with my hand, 

 they made passes at it with their powerful bills with great force. I kept 

 them in this manner until winter. They were at all times uncleanly and 

 unsociable birds. On opening the door of my study one morning, one of 

 them dashed off by me, alighted on an apple-tree near the house, climbed 

 some distance, and kept watching me from one side and then the other, 

 as if to ask what my intentions were. I walked into my study : — the 

 other was hammering at my books. They had broken one of the bars of 

 the cage, and must have been at liberty for some hours, judging by the 

 mischief they had done. Fatigued of my pets, 1 opened the door, and 

 this last one hearing the voice of his brother, flew towards him and alight- 

 ed on the same tree. They remained about half an hour, as if consulting 

 each other, after which, taking to their wings together, they flew off in a 

 southern direction, and with much more ease than could have been ex- 

 pected from birds so long kept in captivity. The ground was covered 

 with snow, and I never more saw them. No birds of this species ever 

 bred since in the hole spoken of in this instance, and I consider it as much 

 wilder than the Ivory- billed Woodpecker.'' 



While in the Great Pine Forest of Pennsylvania, of which I have re- 

 peatedly spoken, I was surprised to see how differently this bird worked 

 on the bark of different trees, when searching for its food. On the hem- 

 lock and spruce, for example, of which the bark is difficult to be detach- 

 ed, it used the bill sideways, hitting the bark in an oblique direction, and 

 proceeding in close parallel lines, so that when, after a while, a piece of 

 the bark was loosened and broken off by a side stroke, the surface of the 

 trunk appeared as if closely grooved by a carpenter using a gouge. In 

 this manner the Pileated Woodpecker often, in that country, strips the 

 entire trunks of the largest trees. On the contrary, when it attacked 

 any other sort of timber, it pelted at the bark in a straightforward man- 

 ner, detacliing a large piece by a few strokes, and leaving the trunks 

 smooth, no injury having been inflicted upon it by the bill. 



This bird, when surprised, is subject to very singular and astonishing 



