THE PILEATED WOODPECKER. 



{Ceophloeus pileatus.) 



In years gone by, when large sections 

 of the United States were covered with 

 deeply wooded virgin forests frequented 

 only by denizens of the wildwood, the 

 Pileated Woodpecker was an abundant 

 resident through nearly all of North 

 America. A bird citizen of the deeper 

 and more extensive forest regions, it has 

 gradually retreated before the advance of 

 man, and it is a very rare visitant in the 

 Eastern States and is only found in the 

 thickly settled and heavily timberCv. bot- 

 tom lands which the human intruder 

 seldom penetrates. In the Southern 

 States it is more common and may be 

 considered abundant in some sections. 



Mr. Manly Hardy says: "The Pile- 

 ated Woodpecker is a constant resident 

 of Maine, but rarely leaves the vicinity 

 of large timber. It prefers places where 

 large hemlocks abound, especially those 

 localities where a few have been killed 

 by camp building or small fires." A 

 strange feature of its distribution is that, 

 though it is distributed quite generally 

 throughout North America, there are 

 many heavily timbered areas, well suited 

 to its habits, in which it is not found. If 

 it occurs at all it is very rare in the 

 Southern Rocky Mountain regions, and 

 is also rare in Alaska. 



The Pileated Woodpecker is a beau- 

 tiful bird of great size and strength. Its 

 bill is both large and powerful. In fact, 

 it is exceeded in size by but one of the 

 Woodpeckers — the ivory-billed species — 

 which is a resident of the Southern 

 States. It is quite variable in its habits. 

 In some sections it is very shy and retir- 

 ing, while in others it is quite tame and 

 becomes quite accustomed to man if not 

 ruthlessly annoyed. Mr. Hardy, writing 

 of his experience with this bird in the 

 woods of Maine, says : ''I once had two 

 so tame they would allow me to sit with- 

 in four paces of them, and put my hand 



upon the tree when they were not ten 

 feet above my head." Mr. Chapman, 

 writing of its habits in the cypress 

 swamps of Florida, says : ''There, con- 

 trary to the experience of Audubon, I 

 found it by no means a wild bird. In- 

 deed, flickers were more difficult to ap- 

 proach," and he also writes : 'T have 

 called these birds to me by simply clap- 

 ping my slightly closed palms, making a 

 sound in imitation of their tapping on 

 a resonant limb." Another writer states 

 that when called in this manner, ''they 

 seem to lose their usual shyness and se.em 

 stupefied at not finding their mate, as 

 they had expected." 



Few birds are more useful in the 

 preservation of the forest from destruc- 

 tion by insect pests. "A workman is 

 known by his chips." The energy and 

 perseverance of the Pileated Woodpecker, 

 as it seeks for the destructive borers or 

 other injurious insects, in the bark and 

 wood of afflicted trees, is amply attested 

 by numerous denuded trees and by the 

 strips of bark and piles of chips lying on 

 the ground. The hammering of the more 

 familiar species of woodpeckers is but a 

 light tapping when compared with the 

 loud and resounding whacks of its power- 

 ful strokes. It has been known to "chisel 

 holes six or eight inches deep in cedar 

 and other soft-wood trees, and as large 

 as the holes in a post-and-rail fence, "^ 

 and to "pick a large hole through two 

 inches of frozen green hemlock to get at 

 the hollow interior." It seldom, if ever,, 

 attacks healthy trees and it is a constant 

 resident of extensive forests that have 

 been swept by destructive fires and the 

 bare tree trunks left to decay. 



Mr. Wilson, that enthusiastic student 

 of bird life, writes in his usual interesting- 

 manner concerning the habits of the Pi- 

 leated Woodpecker. In his "American 

 Ornithology" he says : "Almost every old 



146 



