78 PILBATED WOODPECKER.
half to three, and at the bottom sometimes five or six. It rears, I believe,
only one brood in a season. The young follow their parents for a long
time after coming abroad, receive food from them, and remain with them
until the return of spring. The old birds, as well as the young, are fond
of retiring at night to their holes, to which they return more especially in
winter. My young friend, THOMAS LINCOLN, Esq. of the State of Maine,
knew of one that seldom removed far from its retreat during the whole of
the inclement season.
The observation of many years has convinced me, that Woodpeckers
of all sorts have the bill longer when just fledged than at any future period
of their life, and that through use it becomes not only shorter, but
also much harder, stronger, and sharper. When the Woodpecker first
leaves the nest, its bill may easily be bent; six months after, it resists the
force of the fingers; and when the bird is twelve months old, the organ
has acquired its permanent bony hardness. On measuring the bill of a
young bird of this species not long able to fly, and that of an adult bird,
I found the former seven-eighths of an inch longer than the latter. This
difference I have represented in the plate. It is also curious to observe,
that the young birds of this family, which have the bill tender, either
search for larva? in the most decayed or rotten stumps and trunks of trees,
or hunt the deserted old fields, in search of blackberries and other fruits,
as if sensible of their inaptitude for attacking the bark of sound trees or
the wood itself.
Picus PILEATUS, Linn. Syst. Nat. voL i. p. 173.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 225—
Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 44.
PILEATED WOODPECKER, PICUS PILEATUS, WUS. Amer. Ornith. vol. iv. p. 27-
PI. 29. Fig. 2 Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. r>G7.
Adult Male. Plate CXI. Fig. 1.
Bill long, straight, strong, polyhedral, tapering, compressed and slightly
truncated by being worn at the tip; mandibles of equal length, both
nearly straight in their dorsal outline ; their sides convex. Tongue wormshaped,
capable of reaching four inches beyond the bill, horny near the
tip for about one-eighth of an inch, and barbed. Nostrils basal, oval, partly
covered by recumbent bristly feathers- Head large. Neck rather long,
slender. Body robust. Feet rather short, robust; tarsus strong scutel-
PILEATED WOODPECKER. 79
late before, scaly on the sides; two toes before and two behind, the inner
hind toe shortest; claws strong, arched, very acute.
Plumage compact, glossy. Feathers of the head elongated, loose, and
erectile. Wings large, the third and fourth quills longest. Tail long,
cuneate, of twelve tapering stiff feathers, worn to a point by being rubbed
against the bark of trees.
Bill and feet deep blue. Iris yellow. The general colour of the
plumage is deep black, glossed with purplish-blue. The whole upper
part of the head of a shining deep carmine ; a broad band of black runs
backwards from the eye, and is continued, narrow to the forehead; between
this band and the bright red of the upper part of the head is a narrow
line of white; at the base of the bill commences, at first yellowish, a band
of white, which crosses the cheek, expands on the side of the neck, where
it is joined by the white of the throat, and terminates under the wing ;
there is also a broad band of red from the base of the lower mandible.
Under wing-coverts white, as are the proximal portions of the quills.
Length 18 inches; extent of wings 28; bill along the back If, along
the edges 3.
Adult Female. Plate CXI. Fig. 2.
The female differs little in external appearance from the male. The
fore part and sides of the head over the eye are dusky, and the bright red
of the upper part of the head is confined to the vertex and occiput, while
the red band, from the base of the lower mandible, is substituted by one
of a brownish colour. In other respects it resembles the male.
Young Males. Plate CXI. Fig. 3, 4.
The young males fully fledged, differ little from the old males in the
tints and distribution of their colours; but they are represented in the
plate for the purpose of shewing the original pointed form and greater
length of the bill.