78 PILEATED WOODPECKER. 



half to three, and at the bottom sometimes five or six. It rears, I believe, 

 only one brood in a season. The young follow their parents for a long 

 time after coming abroad, receive food from them, and remain with them 

 until the return of spring. The old birds, as well as the young, are fond 

 of retiring at night to their holes, to which they return more especially in 

 winter. My young friend, Thomas Lincoln, Esq. of the State of Maine, 

 knew of one that seldom removed far from its retreat during the whole of 

 the inclement season. 



The observation of many years has convinced me, that Woodpeckers 

 of all sorts have the bill longer when just fledged than at any future pe- 

 riod of their life, and that through use it becomes not only shorter, but 

 also much harder, stronger, and sharper. When the Woodpecker first 

 leaves the nest, its bill may easily be bent ; six months after, it resists the 

 force of the fingers ; and when the bird is twelve months old, the organ 

 has acquired its permanent bony hardness. On measuring the bill of a 

 young bird of this species not long able to fly, and that of an adult bird, 

 I found the former seven-eighths of an inch longer than the latter. This 

 difference I have represented in the plate. It is also curious to observe, 

 that the young birds of this family, which have the bill tender, either 

 search for larvae in the most decayed or rotten stumps and trunks of trees, 

 or hunt the deserted old fields, in search of blackberries and other fruits, 

 as if sensible of their inaptitude for attacking the bark of sound trees or 

 the wood itself. 



Picus piLEATUS, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 173 — Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 225 



Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 44. 



PiLEATED Woodpecker, Picus pileatus, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. iv. p. 27- 

 PL 29. Fig. 2 — Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. 56?. 



Adult Male. Plate CXI. Fig. 1. 



Bill long, straight, strong, polyhedral, tapering, compressed and slight- 

 ly truncated by being worn at the tip ; mandibles of equal length, both 

 nearly straight in their dorsal outline ; their sides convex. Tongue worm- 

 shaped, capable of reaching four inches beyond the bill, horny near the 

 tip for about one-eighth of an inch, and barbed. Nostrils basal, oval, partly 

 covered by recumbent bristly feathers- Head large. Neck rather long, 

 slender. Body robust. Feet rather short, robust ; tarsus strong scutel- 



