46
Concord, Mass.
Spring and early summer.
1913.

114.  Pileated Woodpecker. About 10 A.M. on May 25 [May 25, 1913], a calm and oppressively
warm Sunday - I was with Zephariah Prosser on the Ritchie place when 
a Pileated Woodpecker proclaimed his presence somewhere on the ridge to the 
eastward where, along the road leading to Benson's from the school house, we 
cut off all the oaks last winter leaving only a few, scattered, large white 
pines. He gave not the rapidly-enunciated, shouting calls so like those 
of the Flicker save for their abrupt, diminuendo termination but the 
prolonged succession of discounted cucks which are absolutely characteristic 
of Pileatus. Zeph, who has worked sixteen years at lumbering in northern 
New England, recognised him instantly by his voice, exclaiming: - Gee!! 
that's one of them big Maine 'leather-heads" a name new to me.
Although I hurried at once to the pine besprinkled hillside but the 
bird was not there nor could I find him in any of the deeper 
woods beyond. No doubt his calls were uttered just before or 
after he took wing to fly to some distant place, perhaps a mile 
or more away. This was the very first occasion when the species 
has been noted by me anywhere in or very near Concord.

115.  House Sparrows. Early in the season a dozen or more of 
these winged pests frequented Mr. Howe's poultry yard to feed on 
grain scattered there, flying thence to Lawrence's for similar plunder.
During such flights they regularly passed high over our farm which 
they have evidently learned to avoid because of the hostile reception 
they have met with there in former years. After shooting at two of them 
in the forsythia thicket in front of the house early this spring I 
had no further trouble with them. They made no attempt whatever 
to nest in any of my bird boxes and were not once seen in 
or near the chicken yards. Most of them deserted the entire neighborhood 
including Mr. Howe's & Edwin Lawrence's farms, at the beginning of 
the breeding season although there may have been one or two 
broods reared somewhere in their orchards as I occasionally saw 
scattered adult birds there in May & June.