PILEATED WOODPECKER 39 



The Pileated Woodpecker mates very early in 

 spring, and the pair spend about a month in 

 digging out the nest cavity. Both birds work at 

 this important task, and after the glossy white 

 eggs are laid they share the duty of incubation. 

 It is said, that when the bird on the nest wishes 

 to go out for food and exercise it will call the 

 mate, and wait until its coming before quitting 

 the eggs. They like to return to the same spot 

 year after year, never using the same nest a 

 second time, but digging another as near as con- 

 venient, so that an old tree may show a number 

 of Woodpecker-holes, each as circular as if it 

 had been bored. The abandoned nests are 

 greatly in demand among smaller birds who nest 

 in hollow wood, and even as nests for squirrels. 



This Woodpecker is not so common as in 

 former years. It does not like cut-over wood- 

 lands, nor the open pine-barrens of the sandy 

 country. .One must go to the hammocks of Flor- 

 ida or to the primeval woods of the southern 

 Alleghenies to find them still plentiful. Their 

 black and white markings and the big flaming 

 head-tuft, vivid in the green shadow, are too 

 good a field-mark to be missed even by a care- 

 less eye. 



