Evening star., 1939-07-08
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henri.

By Thomas r. Henri.
The courtship, family life, homemak-
ing, food gathering and habitats OF the
woodpeckers, sapsuckers and f1ickers of
North America-more than so varieties
OF them-are described from field obser-
vations in bulletin just issued by the
Smithsonian Institution.
The studies, by Arthur Cleveland Bent
OF Taunton, Mass, and several co-opera-
tors, reveal the great woodpecker family
as composed of birds for the most part
highly intelligent and friendly, with
many humanlike traits. Generally speak
ing, they are of benefit to agriculture.
Some of the most interesting Of them
1t Is shown, are quite nicely adjusted
to their environments and, with the
gradual disappearance of these before
the axes and plows of man, they are
having hard struggles to survive. Per-
haps the most intriguing of these is the
big ivory billed woodpecker, now leading
a precarious existence in isolated locali-
ties of Louisiana, Florida and South
Carolina.
1t is conspicuous for its large, ivory
tinted bill, as the name indicates This
was once highly priced, according to
reports Of early naturalists, by the East
ern Indians for necklaces and Northern
tribes would exchange as many as three
deerskins for single bill. Today, ac-
cording to DR.. Arthur A. Allen, who
contributed the chapter on its life his
tory to the Smithsonian report, it is
almost extinct.
1t is primarily bird, DR. Allen reports,
OF great, moss-hung Southern swamps
where it feeds on woodboring larvae ex-
tracted from dead branches. The de-
struction of the swamp forests, DR.. Allen
believes, is the chief reason for it's ap-
proach to extinction. There may, how
ever, be more fundamental reasons, he
points out. The ivory bills are sedentary
in their habits-that is, they seldom
move out Of a rather restricted range.
This has resulted in inbreeding over
many generations, which in turn may
be responsible for many infertile eggs
and weak young.
The National Association of Audubon
Societies has recently established a fell
lowship at Cornell University for the
study of the ivory bill and it is hoped
that means may be found to save it
from extinction.
Another species which has had hard
fight against extinction, but seems to
have won the battle, is the largest of
all-the cock-of -thewoods log cock, or
Northern pileated woodpecker 1t is a
Seclusive bird, seldom actually seen.
Naturally it is dweller in dense North
ern forests. AS these dWindle to wood
lots it retreats and tends to disappear
with the wild turkey, the raven and the
barred owl. From regions once forested,
but now devoted to agriculture, 1t is
gone, but it still fingers on in the noun
talnS, in forested marginal areas and in
SWamplandS. In such territories, in
fact, its numbers during the past half
century have increased and it has re-
appeared in localities once deserted east
of the Mississippi.
The log cock was once hunted as a
game bird. 1t is no longer considered
as such and intelligent protective laws,
Mr.. Bent reports, are giving it new
lease on life. 1t is also helped by the
abandonment to forest of much once
cultivated land in the Eastern States.
But at the best it is scarce, pairs or
small families occurring only at inter-
walls of two or three miles
Most of the woodpeckers are by ma
ture retiring, forest-loving birds, but
some species have adapted themselves
we'll to conditions set up by man. They
have learned to come into open orchards,
even to search for woodboring insects
in the rafters of barns, and also to
come to winter feeding stations where
scraps of meat and suet are provided
for them.
Many of the family, Mr. Bent points
out in his descriptions of the various
species, have finely developed ability
to sound" trees in order to determine
the location of insect colonies inside
the wood. Once food has been located
the woodpeckers proceed to eXcavate di-
rectly toward it with an instructive ac-
curacy.
The woodpecker bulletin is the twelfth
of a series being issued by the Smith
sonian Institution on the life histories
of the birds of North America.