PILEATED WOODPECKER. 409 



Ore. There it breeds in healthy live aspen trees, making a good-shaped nest, which is 



situated fifteen to twenty feet from the ground, 



DESCRIPTION: The head and neck all round, and breast carmine-red. Above, black, central line of back 

 from nape to rump, spotted with whitish ; rump, wing-coverts, and inner webs of the inner tail-feathers, 

 white. Belly, sulphur-yellow, streaked with brown on the sides. 



Williamson's Woodpecker, Sphyrapicus thyroideus Baird, inhabits the Rocky 



Mountain region, west to the Sierra Nevada, south on the table lands of Mexico to the 



Sierra Bolanos, Jalisco. The male and female of this species are so different in coloration 



that they were considered for a long time as two different species. Its favorite haunts 



are the coniferous mountain forests, where it leads a rather retired life. In the vicinity 



of Fort Klamath, Ore., where it has been found breeding by Major Charles Bendire, it 



is shy and very suspicious. 



DESCRIPTION: Male: General color, glossy black, relieved by two white stripes on the side of the head; a 

 large white patch on middle and greater wing-coverts; throat with a median stripe of bright red. 

 Female: Head nearly uniform light brown ; sides, flanks, upper parts, regularly barred with black and 

 white; no white patch on wings; chest, usually with more or less of a black patch. 



PILEATED WOODPECKER. 



Ceophloeus pil^atns Cabanis. 



I'latk XXXVI. Fig. 6. 



S^HE magnificent primeval forests of our childhood days have vanished, and fields, 

 J meadow^s, and pastures have taken their place. The gigantic white pines and 

 hemlocks, the majestic old oaks, the picturesque elms, and the stately sugar maples 

 found their way to the saw mill or were felled and burned. The erstwhile so romantic 

 woodland brooks and cool springs have lost most of their charm, being denuded of their 

 border of trees and shrubs. During a large portion of the year they are dry. We may 

 assert that with the destruction of the forests in the coniferous region of Wisconsin their 

 beauty and poetry has also been destroyed. The farm-houses, once surrounded by beau- 

 tiful w^oods, are scattered around in a rather desolate manner, and the few fruit and 

 ornamental trees offer no compensation for the destroyed forest. Many of the woodland 

 flow^ers have also vanished, especially those which w^ere our childhood favorites and of 

 which we culled beautiful bouquets. The lovely moccasin flower {Cypripedium spectabile), 

 the stemless and the yellow lady's slipper {Cypripedium acanle and C. puhescens), the aro- 

 matic w^intergreen {Gaultberia procumbens) , the variegated pla.iitam{G oodyera puhescens) , 

 and other delicate woodland species are scarcely met with at present. Other flowers, 

 like the trilliums, hepaticas, dog's tooth violets, blood-root, Canada lilies, etc., have 

 often found abiding places in the fence comers. White-thorns, June-berr3'' and plum trees, 

 viburnum bushes, wild crab trees, and dogwood are also found along fences and on the 

 borders of the w^oods. When I, in late years, sauntered through the remnants of the 

 once so magnificent w^oods near my home at Howard's Grove (Sheboygan Co., Wis.), 

 a feeling of sadness and loneliness overcame me. Many of the birds, too, have become 



