The California Woodpecker 
ha ha ha ha ha hii. “At a distance this call sounds metallic; but when 
at close range it is sent echoing through the forest, it is full and clear, 
and it is the most untamably wild sound among bird notes.” 
The Pileated Woodpecker chisels out its nesting hole at any height 
in dead timber, whether of fir, pine, or incense cedar. It nests regularly 
in this State, but the taking of its eggs is something of a feat; so, in 
default of much-coveted “luck,” we fall back on Bendire: “From 
three to live eggs are usually laid to a set, but I have seen it stated that 
the Pileated Woodpecker often laid six, and that a nest found near Farm- 
ville, Virginia, contained eight. An egg is deposited daily, and incubation 
begins occasionally before the set is completed, and lasts about eighteen 
days, both sexes assisting in the duty, as well as in caring for the young. 
Like all Woodpeckers, the Pileated are very devoted parents, and the 
young follow them for some weeks after leaving the nest, until fully 
capable of caring for themselves. Only one brood is raised in a season. 
The eggs of the Pileated Woodpecker are pure china-white in color, 
mostly ovate in shape; the shell is exceedingly fine-grained and very 
glossy, as if enameled.” 
The gravest crime of which a child of nature can possibly be guilty 
is to grow larger than the common run of its kind. Capital punishment 
is the invariable penalty we mete out in such cases; and for this reason, 
principally, this wild-hearted chieftain of the woods has been nearly 
exterminated in the more settled parts of America. In the old South the 
very name “Woodcock,” which although absurdly inaccurate still sounds 
sapid, has hastened the doom of an inoffensive bird. Under this foolish 
misnomer the carcasses of Pileated Woodpeckers were, until lately, 
offered in open market in the City of Washington. But it is difficult to 
conceive how even darkies could ever have relished them as food. Cap¬ 
tain Bendire tried one once when he was short of rations, up in Oregon, 
and he has left eloquent testimony to the bird's non-edibility. Fricassee 
of Woodpecker! Lfgh! 
No. 200 
California Woodpecker 
A. O. U. No. 407a. Balanosphyra formicivorus bairdi Ridgway. 
Description. —Adult male: Nasal tufts continuous with chin and upper throat 
black; forehead, connecting narrowly with sides of throat and lower throat, white, 
the lower throat, centrally, tinged with light greenish yellow; crown and nape spectrum 
red; rump and upper tail-coverts white; sides of head, breast, and remaining upperparts, 
including tail, shining black with bluish or greenish reflections; wings changing to dull 
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