The Western Pi lea ted Woodpecker 
Recognition Marks. —Crow size, largest of western woodpeckers; black, white, 
and red on head; body mainly black. 
Nesting. — Nest: A cavity with entrance hole 3 to 3^2 inches in diameter, 
high in dead tree. Eggs: 3-5, 6 of record; white. Av. size 32.5 x 24.1 (1.28 x .95). 
Season: c. May 1st; one brood. 
Range of Phlceotomus pileatus .—Wooded portions of North America. 
Range of P. p. picinus .—“Northwest coast district, from British Columbia to 
northern California, east to Idaho and northwestern Montana, and south to southern 
Sierra Nevada” (Ridgway). 
Distribution in California. —Locally resident in heavily timbered sections in 
the Transition zone of the inner ranges of northwestern California south at least to 
Cazadero, and in the Sierras from Shasta to the Kings River region. 
Authorities.—Bridges (Dryocopus pileatus), Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1858, p. 
2 (Trinity Co. and Sierra Nevada); Fisher, N. Am. Fauna, no. 7, 1893, p. 49 (localities 
in s. Sierra Nevada); Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, vol. ii., 1895, p. 102, pi. i., fig. 
5 (egg); Carriger and Wells, Condor, vol. xxi., 1919, p. 153, fig. (Placer Co.; desc., 
habits, nests, eggs). 
ONE’S first acquaintance with this huge black fowl marks a red- 
letter day in woodcraft, and it is permitted the serious student to examine 
the bird anatomically just once in a lifetime. The scarlet crest attracts 
first attention, not only because of its brilliancy, but because its presence 
counterbalances the bill, and imparts to the head its hammer-like aspect. 
This crest was much sought after by the Indians of our coast, and figured 
prominently as a personal decoration in their medicine dances, as did 
the bird itself in their medicine lore. A measurement of twenty-eight 
inches from wing-tip to wing-tip marks the size of this “Black Wood¬ 
cock,” while the stiffened tail-feathers with their down-turned vanes 
show what adequate support is given the clinging claws when the bird 
delivers one of its powerful strokes. The bill is the marvel. Made, 
apparently, of horn, like other birds’ bills, it has some of the attributes 
of tempered steel. The bird uses it recklessly as both ax and crowbar, 
for it hews its way through the bark of our largest dead fir trees, in its 
efforts to get at the grubs, which have their greatest field of activity 
between the bark and the wood. It pries off great chips and flakes by a 
sidewise wrench of its head. A carpenter is known by his chips, but no 
carpenter would put his chisels to such hard service as the bird does his. 
As a result there is no mistaking the bark pile which surrounds the base 
of certain old stubs in the forest for the work of any other agency. 
Possibly the most interesting of all is the Log-cock’s tongue, which 
it is able to protrude suddenly to a distance of four or five inches beyond 
the tip of its beak. This provision enables the bird to economize labor 
in the tracking of buried sweets, and the arrangement is made possible 
by the great development of the hyoid bones with their muscular attach- 
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