The Pileated Woodpecker {Ceophioeas ahieticoia) 



By W. Leon Dawson 



Synonym. — Logcock. 



Description. — Adult male: General plumage sooty black, lusterless save on 

 wings and back; whole top of head and lengthened crest bright red; red malar 

 stripes changing to black behind, and separating white spaces ; chin and upper 

 throat white; also a white stripe extending from nostrils and below eye to nape 

 and produced downward and backward to shoulder ; a narrow white stripe over 

 and behind eye; lining and edge of wing, and a large spot (nearly concealed) at 

 base of primaries, white ; black feathers of sides sparingly white-tipped ; bill dark 

 plumbeous above, lighter below, save at tip; feet black. Adult female: Similar 

 but black on forehead, and black instead of red malar stripes. Length 15.50-19.00 

 (393.7-482.6); wing 8.50-10.00 (215.9-254.); tail 5.85-7.40 (148.6-188.); head 

 4.50-5.50 (114.3-139.7) ; bill 1.75-2.65 (44.5-67.3). 



Recognition Marks. — Largest size ; black, white and red on head in stripes ; 

 body mainly black. 



Nest, high in trees. £^7^.9, 4-6, white. Av. size, 1.29x.94 (32.8x23.9). 



General Range. — Formerly the heavily wooded regions of North America 

 south of about latitude 63°, except in the southern Rocky Mountains. Now rare 

 or extirpated in the more settled parts of the Eastern States. 



IF the "curse of beauty" be added to that of large size, the destruction of 

 a bird is foredoomed in this age of automatic shot-guns and unappointed game 

 w^ardens. This magnificent black Woodpecker, once common throughout the 

 heavily timbered areas of our own and adjacent states, has almost disappeared 

 before the industrious axe and the all-conquering gun. The bird has been re- 

 cently reported only by Robert J. Sim, of Jefferson, and in "Middle Southern 

 Ohio," by Rev. W. F. Henninger. In an interesting communication, to which 

 I am indebted for an account of the bird's habits, Mr. Sim states that the Pileated 

 Woodpecker is almost always to be found in the vicinity of Jefferson. An exten- 

 sive area of primeval forest, near at hand, has afforded it asylum for many years 

 past, but the tract is even now being reduced by lumbering interests ; and the day 

 of the passing of the Logcock is not far distant. 



In the spring of 1902, according to Mr. Sim, a pair of these birds nested 

 within a mile of town. The nesting cavity was dug in a beech tree, at a height 

 of about thirty feet, and within two feet of the broken-off top, and the work was 

 completed by the middle of April. Chips were strewn liberally over the ground 

 below, and many showed the characteristic chisel marks of the bird's powerful 

 bill. During the nesting season the parent birds remained pretty closely in the 

 neighborhood of the home tree, drumming, calling, and searching for food. 



"The drumming song is a series of about twelve taps, increasing in rapidity 

 and growing less in strength to the end. It may be heard for a long distance. I 



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