There is alfo a variety of this, which wants the red fpot on the
head, but inftead of it has a circle of yellow encompafiing the
head:
'Female. The female has neither red nor yellow on any part of the
head.
7- „
*t— V ar . B.
D escription. J^ EN G TH eight inches and a half. Bill dufky, pak at the
bafe: general colour of the plumage black: .on the middle
of the crown is a red fpot : on the fide of the head a bed of
white, in which the eye is placed; this extends to the hind head,
which is of a golden yellow : from the breaft down the middle
and the Tides deep crimlbn : vent barred black and white : lower
.part of the back and rump white : wings and tail black : -fome of
the Secondaries tipped with white at the very tip.
.Female. The female, or what I fuppofe to be fuch, anfwers in every refpeft
to. the foregoing defcription, except in the head, which is
-wholly black, having only a line o f white over each eye.
P lace. The former of thefe is in the colleftion of Capt. Davies, the laft
in my pofleffion ; both of them from Cayenne.
Buff on does not tell us on what, part o f the head the red fpot is
in his bird ; nor does he mention the lower part of the back and
-rump being white ; but in the Planches enluminées it feems to be
on the crown : and the lower part of the back and rump are there
white, though omitted in the defcription : I will therefore fuppofe
■ them trifling varieties.
-Piou»
P
W O O D P E c K E R. ü® I
Ticus erythroçephàluj, Lin. Syji. i. p. .174. N° 7. g.
Xe Pic à telle rouge de-Virginie, Brifarn. iv. p. 53. ,N° la. pi. 3. f. I. -i-Rt'Û-
Le Pic noir à Domingo rouge, Bnf. oif. Vii. p. 55. HÇADED
■ Pic de Virginie, Bl.enl. 117.
Red-heajled Woodpecker, Catejb. Car. i. pl. 20.
-------- *---------- ------------ Kalm. Teav. ii. ,p. 86.—Am. Zoo!. N°
Bev. Muf.
'y~j“'HIS bird is eight inches and three quarters in length, and
weighs two ounces. Bill an inch and a quarter long, of
-a lead-colour, with a black tip : irides duiky : the head and the
■ whole of the neck are of a mod beautiful crimfon : back and
wings black,: the rump, breaft, and belly., white: the ten firft
•quills are black, the eleventh black and white, and the others
•white with black Ihafts: the tail black and cuneiform: legs and
«claws lead-colour. The cock and hen nearly alike,
Inhabits Virginia, Carolina, Canada, and moft of the parts of
.North America-, but at the approach of winter migrates more
or lefs to the fouthward, according to the feverity of the feafon j
and upon this iircumftance the people of North America foretell
-the rigour or clemency of the enfuing winter.
Kalm obferves that it is a very common bird, and is very de-
ftruftive to the maize-fields and orchards, pecking through the
■ ears of maize, and deftroying great quantities of apples. In fome
years they are more numerous than in others,- when they attack
the orchards where the fweet apples grow, which they eat fo far
that nothing remains but the mere peels. Some years fince there
was a premium of two pence per head paid-from the public fund,
in order to extirpate this pernicious bird; but this has been
neglefted much of late. They are faid likewife to be very fond
4 C of
D£ SC Ril p TION.»
PLACIS.
M a n n e r s .