366 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



In Kalamazoo county the late Richard B. Westnedge took nests of fresh 

 eggs from May 21 to May 28, and often farther north eggs are not laid 

 before the first week in June. The nest is a hole in the dead trunk or 

 branch of a tree, the entrance being about If inches in diameter and the 

 depth of the hole varying from eight inches to two feet. Usually the nests 

 are at a considerable height from the ground, rarely less than ten feet and 

 often sixty feet or more. Not infrequently telephone poles are used for 

 nesting, but we have never seen a nest in a fencepost. But one brood is 

 reared in the season, but, as with other species, a second laying is made 

 if the first set of eggs be taken (July 11, 1877, Kalamazoo county). The 

 eggs vary from four to seven, are white, unspotted and glossy, and average 

 .97 by .75 inches. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Entire head and neck, all round, deep crimson; back, scapulars, and most 

 of wings glossy black; terminal half of secondaries, rump and upper tail-coverts pure white; 

 under parts, from lower neck to tail, pure white, sometimes washed with yellowish or 

 orange on the belly; tail entirely black, or a few of the outer feathers white-tipped; bill 

 blackish or horn-colored; iris brown. 



Adult female: Similar to male, but usually with a narrow belt of clear black between 

 the red throat and white breast, and the inner secondaries always more or less barred or 

 spotted with black. 



Young: Without any red, or only a few feathers, on head and neck, these parts brownish 

 gray, thickly spotted or mottled with blackish, and breast and sides streaked with the 

 same; rump and tail as in old birds; all the secondaries white, barred or spotted with black. 



Length 9.25 to 9.75 inches; wing 5.30 to 5.70; tail 3.60 to 3.75; culmen .90 to 1.15. 



171. Red-bellied Woodpecker. Centurus carolinus (Linn.). (409) 



Synonyms: Zebra Bird, Zebra-back. — Picus carolinus, Linn., 1758, Wils., Aud. and 

 others. — Centurus carolinensis. Swains., 1837, and most subsequent authors. 



Figure 91. 



Our only woodpecker which shows any red on the belly, but often this 

 is a mere tinge, by no means conspicuous. On the other hand, the beauti- 

 fully cross-barred black and white back and wings are very conspicuous 

 and render the bird unmistakable. 



Distribution. — Eastern and southern United States, north casually to 

 Massachusetts, New York, Ontario, southern Michigan, and central Iowa; 

 west to eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, Indian Territory and Texas. 



The distribution of this bird in Michigan is of much interest. It seems 

 to be nowhere abundant, but is more frequently met with in the southern 

 half of the state, where, although not 

 common, it cannot be considered par- 

 ticularly rare. It is reported as a regular 

 migrant in almost every county in the 

 southern part of the state, as far north at 

 least as the Saginaw Valley, although it 

 seems to be rather more abundant on the 

 west side of the state than in the east. 



B. H. Swales does not include it in his 

 list of the birds of St. Clair county (MSS.), 



but Hazelwood finds it, though rarely, at Fig. 91. Red-bellled Woodpecker. 

 Port Huron. P. A. Taverner says it is very ^rom Bailey-s Handbook of Birds of the 



rare about Detroit, has found it but once, Wc.ternu.s. Houghton. Mifflin &co. 



