Genus SPHYRAPICU8 Baikd. 

 SPHYRAPICUR VARTU8 (Linn. 



175. 



Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. (+02) 



Crown, cnmson. bonleve.l all uvoun.l wUh Llack ; clun, throat a .1 b.eas^ 

 Mack, enclosing a large crimson patch on the forn.er - ^'^ jf jj^^^^^ 

 femah, this patch white; sides of head with a line starting from the nasal 

 f athei-s and dividing the black of the throat f'--/----^^ '^^^^J^^^^^^^^^ 

 this separated from the black of crown by a white post-ocular stripe , al 

 hi stripes frequently yellowish; under parts^ dingy ^f^^^^^^^^ ^^ 

 with sagittate dusky marks on the sides; back, variegated witl black and 

 vellowii-brown; wings, black with large oblique white ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ 

 "the quills with numerous paired white spots on the edge of both webs tail, 

 Mack most of the featheis white-edged, the inner webs o the n-^;"e Pau- 

 and the upper coverts mostly white. Yonn, birds lack the definite black 

 :1s of tlJe'head and breast and the crimson throat patch, these parts being 

 mottled-grav. About, 8^ ; wing, 4i-o; tail, 3i. 



HAB.-North America, north an.l east of the (heat Plains, south to the 

 West Indies, Mexico and Guatemala. 



Eggs, four to six, white, <leposited in a hole in a tree. 



In Ontario this beautiful species is strictly migratory, not having 

 been observed .luring winter, but from the fact of its being seen late 

 in the fall and again early in spring, we infer that it does not go far 



'°''lt"is decidedly a sapsucker, the rows of holes pierced in the bai-k 

 of sound, growing trees being mostly made by this species. It is 

 not endowed with tin- long, extensile tongue peculiar to many ot 



