PILEATED WOODPECKER. 21 



of these birds, killed in various parts of the United States, 

 from Lake Ontario to the Alatamaha river, but never found a 

 grain of Indian corn in their stomachs. 



The pileated woodpecker is not migratory, but braves the 

 extremes of both the arctic and torrid regions. Neither is he 

 gregarious, for it is rare to see more than one or two, or at 

 the most three, in company. Formerly they were numerous 

 in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia ; but gradually, as the 

 old timber fell, and the country became better cleared, they 

 retreated to the forest. At present few of those birds are to 

 be found within ten or fifteen miles of the city. 



Their nest is built, or rather the eggs are deposited, in the 

 hole of a tree, dug out by themselves, no other materials being 

 used but the soft chips of rotten wood. The female lays six 

 large eggs of a snowy whiteness ; and, it is said, they generally 

 raise two broods in the same season. 



This species is eighteen inches long, and twenty-eight in 

 extent ; the general colour is a dusky brownish black ; the 

 head is ornamented with a conical cap of bright scarlet ; two 

 scarlet mustaches proceed from the lower mandible ; the chin 

 is white ; the nostrils are covered with brownish white hair- 

 like feathers, and this stripe of white passes from thence down 

 the side of the neck to the sides, spreading under the wings ; 

 the upper half of the wings are white, but concealed by the 

 black coverts ; the lower extremities of the wings are black, 

 so that the white on the wing is not seen but when the bird 

 is flying, at which time it is very prominent ; the tail is taper- 

 ing, the feathers being very convex above, and strong; the 

 legs are of a leaden gray colour, very short, scarcely half an 

 inch ; the toes very long ; claws, strong and semicircular, and 

 of a pale blue ; the bill is fluted, sharply ridged, very broad 

 at the base, bluish black above, below and at the point bluish 

 white; the eye is of a bright golden colour, the pupil black; 

 the tongue, like those of its tribe, is worm-shaped, except near 

 the tip, where for one-eighth of an inch it is horny, pointed, 

 and beset with barbs. 



