WOODPECKERS 169 



species in the category of injurious birds; on the contrary they 

 should be carefully protected.** 



PILEATED WOODPECKER; "LOGCOCK": Phloeotomus 

 pUeatus pileattis (Linnaeus). 



State records. — The pileated woodpecker, the largest of its 

 tribe now found in the State, is a generally distributed per- 

 manent resident; in most localities it is rather scarce, but in 

 certain of the wilder parts is not uncommon. It is known 

 by a variety of names, including "logcock," "woodcock," 

 "woodchuck," "Indian-hen," and "lord-god." 



Dr. Avery, in 1890, speaks of it as "not common, though 

 once abundant" at Greensboro; and McCormack regards it as 

 "not uncommon"' near Leighton. Golsan and Holt record it 

 locally common near Autaugaville, and describe a nest with 

 incubated eggs taken there, April 14, 1909.* It breeds com- 

 monly on Sand Mountain, Jackson County, as also on the 

 Talladega Mountains and Mount Weogufka, and at Scottsboro, 

 Huntsville, Guntersville, Tidewater, Natural Bridge, Mell- 

 ville, Hayneville, Reform, Carlton, Castleberry, Mobile, 

 Orange Beach, Dothan, and on Petit Bois Island. The usual 

 number of eggs is 3 to 5, though 6 are occasionally found. 



General habits. — The pileated woodpecker is an inhabitant 

 of the wilder and more heavily timbered swamps, river bot- 

 toms, and mountain sides. I have always found it shy and 

 difficult to approach, but Chapman and others record it rather 

 unsuspicious in some localities. Its flight is rather slow and 

 steady, without the dippings so characteristic of the smaller 

 woodpeckers. In flight it looks not unlike a crow except for 

 the prominent white patches in the wings. Chapman describes 

 its ordinary call note as "a sonorous cow-cow-cow, repeated 

 rather slowly many times, suggesting a somewhat similar call 

 of the flicker's. Like the flicker, it has also a wichew note 

 uttered when two birds come together."f The nest is placed 



••The yellow-bellied sapsucker may be distinguished from all other woodpeckers in 

 Alabama by the yellow belly (not white), the conspicuous white patch on the wing, and 

 the red patch on the front of the head in combination with a black patch on the breast 

 <McAtee, op. cit., p. 96). , „. „„„ ,„,^ 



♦Golsan and Holt, The Auk, vol. SI, p. 223, X914. 



fChapman, F. M., Handbook of birds of eastern North America, p. 328, 1912. 



