360 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
In a recent bulletin entitled Woodpeckers in Relation to Trees and Wood 
Products (Bull. 39, Biological Survey, U. 8. Dept. Agriculture, 1911), W. 
L. McAtee devotes much space to the Sapsucker, and shows pretty con- 
clusively that this bird, on the whole, does far more harm than good. Not 
only does it kill valuable trees outright but its attacks cause distortion 
of the trees themselves and irregularities in the woody layers, while the 
punctures made for cambium and sap let in water, fungus germs, bacteria, 
etc., which often result in serious damage to the timber. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult male: Forehead, crown, chin and throat bright crimson, side of head with two 
white stripes and three black ones, the lowermost black one bordering the red throat and 
running into the conspicuous velvet black patch on the upper breast; rest of under parts pale 
yellow or yellowish white, the sides and flanks spotted, streaked or barred with blackish; 
upper parts mixed black and white, the rump and upper tail-coverts nearly white; wings 
spotted with black and white and a conspicuous broad white stripe on the greater coverts, 
forming a good field-mark; two middle tail-feathers mostly white on inner webs; outer tail- 
feathers with only narrow white edgings or small spots near tips; bill bluish black; nasal 
tufts white; iris brown. 
Adult female: Similar to male, but the red of chin and throat replaced by pure white, 
and the red of crown often mixed with gray or brown. Young birds of either sex usually 
lack all red, or have only a few scattered red feathers on the crown, while the under parts 
are more streaked and mottled, the black chest patch sometimes quite indistinct; the 
species may always be recognized, however, by the white wing-patch and white-marked 
middle tail-feathers, aside from the yellowish pel 
An interesting abnormality is noted occasionally in birds which seem otherwise adult. 
It consists in the replacement of the red crown by glossy black, so that the entire top of 
the head is clear black, with perhaps a few minute flecks of white or a tinge of red on the 
forehead. The writer has seen four or five such specimens, all females, and P. A. Tav- 
erner, of Detroit, has taken one or two. 
Length 7.75 to 8.75 inches; wing 4.80 to 5; tail 2.90 to 3.20; culmen 1 to 1.08. 
169. Log-cock. Phloeotomus pileatus abieticola (Bangs). (405a) 
Synonyms: Pileated Woodpecker, Northern Pileated Woodpecker, Great Black Wood- 
pecker, Cock of the Woods, Wood Cock, Wood Hen.—Ceophleus pileatus abieticola, 
Bangs, 1898.—Picus pileatus, Linn., 1766, Wils., 1811, Aud., 1834.—Dryocopus pileatus, 
Bonap., 1838.—Hylotomus pileatus, Baird, 1858, and many subsequent authors.— 
Ceophleeus pileatus, Cab., 1862, A. O. U. Check-list, 1889, 1895. 
Plate XXXVI. 
Known at once by its large size (scarcely less than the Crow) and pre- 
vailing brownish black plumage with conspicuous red cap. The largest 
by far of our woodpeckers. 
Distribution.—Forests of the northern United States and northward to 
about 63°. Toward the south it intergrades with Ceophleus pileatus 
pileatus, but as yet the limits of the two species have not been definitely 
mapped. Resident and nesting (?) wherever found. 
This, the largest of our woodpeckers, was formerly an abundant bird 
throughout the state, but with the deforesting of the country it has become 
more and more rare until at the present time it is seldom seen in the southern 
half of the Lower Peninsula and probably is nowhere as abundant as it was 
twenty years ago. Nevertheless, it is far from rare in the wilder parts of 
the Lower Peninsula, and is fairly common in many districts in the Upper 
Peninsula. 
Among the lumbermen of the north it is commonly known as the “ Wood 
