bitant of the fur-countries up to the fifty-eighth parallel. It seeks its food principally
on the maple, elm, and ash, and, north of latitude 54°, where these trees
terminate, on the aspen and birch. Its researches are made mostly, if not wholly,
on live trees; and it encircles their trunks by spiral or horizontal rows of small,
round holes, similar to those drilled by a gimlet, and just penetrating the bark.
When engaged in this work, its attention is so much occupied, that it may be
approached very closely. As soon as it does observe any one near it, it utters
a shrill cry, and flies to another tree, on which it instantly resumes its labour as
if the cause of its alarm were totally forgotten. It excavates its nest in the limb
of a tree ; and Wilson informs us that, to avoid betraying its situation, it carries the chips to a distance.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, killed on the Saskatchewan in the spring of 1827.
Colour.—Top and sides of the head and the nape velvet-black ; the hind head crossed
by an arterial blood-red band. Ground of the dorsal plumage, wings, and two middle pairs
of tail feathers, pitch-black; scapulars, upper wing coverts, and tail coverts, unspotted.
Nasal feathers, a broad superciliary stripe, terminating at the red band, a line from the
rictus, crossing the ears to a large round patch on the sides of the nape, middle of the back
anteriorly, ends of the downy feathers on the hinder part of the back, a large central spot
on a few of the intermediate wing coverts, a smaller one on the outer web of each of the
greater coverts, the extreme tips of most of the quills, a series of marginal spots on both
recollect that it is only within the last few years that several of the birds of Europe have been discovered to be new
and peculiar species, overlooked by former writers, and that discoveries of this kind are occurring every year even in
our own island, it need not excite any great surprise that the forests of North America are not yet exhausted.
Ch . Sp . P iou s (Dendrocopus) m e d ia n u s, alba nigroque varius, vertice nigro ocdpite rubro ambobus albo macu-
latis ; remige secundo septimum longe super anti.
Sp. Ch . L i t t l e M id l a n d W o o d p e c k e r , varied with black and white; crown black, hind head red, both spotted
with white; second quill feather much longer than the seventh.
Obs. Lateral tail feathers narrowed and pointed at the end; the shafts narrow, gradually the apex of the feathers. pointed, and reaching to
Inhabits the middle parts of North America. Not uncommon in New Jersey. Closely resembles the pubescens in
size and general appearance. The female differs merely in having the upper part of the head entirely black.
Ch . Sp . P iou s (Dendrocopus') m e r id io n a l is , albo nigroque varius, subtus griseus, vertice nigro, ocdpite late, rubro
fasdato ; remige secundo et octavo eequalibus.
Sp . Ch . L i t t l e Ge o r g ia n W o o d pe c k e r , varied with black and white, beneath grey, crown black, a broad red
band on the hind head; second quill feather equal to the eighth.
Ob s. Smaller than P. pubescens, which it resembles in general appearance, in the structure of the shafts, and rounded
form of the tail feathers; the under plumage, however, is hair-brown (as dark, but not so yellow, as that of
Picus major), instead of white, or whitish, as in P. pubescens: the red band is much broader, and the relative
lengths of the quills are different.
Inhabits Gcoenofrigrima.a tioAns. —weS wha. ve as yet seen but two specimens of this, we consider its specific claims require further
their webs, the throat, and under tail coverts, all pure white,—the shafts of the latter black
near the tip. The rest of the under plumage pale ash-grey (in some specimens almost
white). Three lateral pairs of tail feathers white; the two outer ones with two interrupted
black bars near the end ; inner web of the third one black to near the tip. Bill bluish-
black. Legs greenish.
F o r m , perfectly typical. Fourth and fifth quill feathers the longest; third and sixth
nearly equalling them; second just exceeding the eighth, and considerably shorter than the
seventh. Tail graduated.—In some specimens there are a few white feathers on the frontlet.
The female wants the scarlet band, and her bill is rather shorter.
Length, total
" „ of tail
„ of wing
„ - of bill above
D imensions
Of the male.
Inch.
. 6
Lin.
6 Length of bill to rictus . 0
Lin.
10* Length of outer hind toe 0
Lin.
5§
3 0 ,, of tarsus ' 0 7 ,,' of outer hind nail . 0 3
. 3 10* ,, of middle toe . . 0 5 „ of inner hind toe 0 2
0 8 „ of middle nail 0 3* ,, of its nail . 0 2
Outermost tail feather but one of Dendrocopus pubescens.
[103.] 4. Picus ( D e n d r o c o p u s ) v a r i u s . (Swainson.) Yellow-bellied
Woodpecker.
Ge n u s , Picus, L in n . Sub-genus, Dendrocopus, K o ch .
Le Pic varié de la Caroline. B u f f o n , PI. Enl. 785 ; young-
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. P e n n . Arct. Zool., ii., p. 275, No. 166. W il s ., i., p. 147, pi. 9, f- 2.
Picus varius. V i e i l . Ois. de V Am., ii., p. 63, pi. 118 ; and young, pi. 119. Sab. Fr. Joum., p. 677-
B o n a p. Syn., No. 41 : Or»., i., pi. 8, f. 1 and 2. W a g l e r , Sp. Av. Picus 16.
Meekesew-paupastuow. Cr e e I n d ia n s .
This very gay Woodpecker is the only one that visits the fur-countries in
flocks; for though the Colaptes auratus is also migratory, it arrives in a more
straggling manner, and immediately pairs. We observed the Yellow-bellied
Woodpecker, in 1825, on the north shore of Lake Huron, on the 14th of April;
and, in 1827, it made its first appearance for the season, on the plains of the