PILEATED WOODPECKER 37 



sawdust and chips, are half a dozen or so of 

 glossy white eggs. One large dead pine I know 

 of has more than a dozen such round holes in 

 its trunk ; perhaps the same pair of Woodpeckers 

 have built there season after season. 



Bedhead has the name of being destructive; 

 and like Jays and Crows, he will rifle the nests 

 of smaller birds. But his fare and habits change 

 with the season. In winter beach nuts are 

 greatly favored, and in summer he hunts fruit 

 and insects. 



The feet of all our Woodpeckers have two 

 toes pointing forward and two back. Were our 

 schoolboys equipped with such stout climbers, no 

 pecan-tree in the land could withhold its nuts. 



The Red-bellied Woodpecker is also common 

 in the Southern states, and the Red-cockaded is 

 found in the pine woods. But the largest and 

 most beautiful Woodpecker of all, the Ivory- 

 billed, is now extinct in the United States, except 

 in a few counties in Florida. 



PILEATED WOODPECKER 



Next to the beautiful Ivory-billed, w T hich is 

 now all but extinct in the United States, the 

 Pileated Woodpecker is largest of the Wood- 

 pecker family found in this country, being nearly 

 if not quite as large as a Crow. Its usual cry 

 is a "cuk-cuk-cuk-cuk" similar to the note of a 



