Rocky Mountain region, west to Sierra Nevada, Cascades and northern Coast Ranges, breeding at from 5000 to 9000 feet elevation. The handsomest of our woodpeckers.
14. CEOPHLOEUS PILEATUS, _Pileated Woodpecker, Logcock_. Body blackish slate; wings with a large white patch conspicuous only when flying; throat white; a white stripe across cheek and down neck; jaw-stripe scarlet in male, blackish in female; both sexes with scarlet crest, but in the male the whole top of head (which is slaty black in female) equally brilliant. This red cap gives the bird the name of _pileated_. Iris yellow. 17 inches. Wooded regions of Southern States, Florida to North Carolina, very rarely near settlements, but far more common than the following subspecies of the North and West.
a. _C. p. abieticola_, _Northern Pileated Woodpecker_. Larger; more extensive white markings; the black grayer or browner. From Virginia northward to 63° in the East, and in the West among the Rocky Mountains, north of Colorado, to the northwest coast; a shy woodland bird to be looked for only in the primitive evergreen forests, though sometimes occurring in any heavy timber and, in New England, upon the higher well-wooded mountains. The largest of the northern woodpeckers; resident.
15. _Melanerpes erythrocephalus_, _Red-headed Woodpecker_. Wings, tail, and upper parts glossy blue-black; rump, exposed secondaries, and under parts from breast downward pure white; _head_, _neck_, and _breast crimson._ _Sexes alike._ Young with red and black wholly or partly replaced by grayish brown; can be recognized by white markings. 9.5 inches. United States, west to Rocky Mountains; rare east of Hudson River, but ordinarily breeding wherever found; in winter usually migratory from its northern limits, the migration depending principally upon the food supply and depth of snow.
16. MELANERPES FORMICIVORUS, _Ant-eating Woodpecker_. Upper parts, wings, and tail glossy greenish black; _rump_ and lower parts _white_; white patch on primaries, conspicuous in flight; upper throat and line about the bill dull black; _forehead_ with _wide white band_; lower _throat sulphur yellow_; breast and sides thickly streaked with black and white. [M] with crown and occiput crimson; [F] with crown black, occiput crimson. Iris white. 7-9 inches. Mexico; western Texas.