PILEATED WOODPECKER. 
21 
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 tapering, 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. 
The female has the forehead, and nearly to the crown, of a 
light brown colour, and the mustaches are dusky, instead of 
red. In both a fine line of white separates the red crest from 
the dusky line that passes over the eye. 
