206 THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 



of white, the feathers composing which are somewhat 

 loose and uuwebbed, reserabhng hairs, whence its name; 

 the rump and the shoulders of the wings are black; the 

 wings are black, tipped and spotted with white; the tail 

 consists of ten pointed feathers, the four middle ones 

 black; the next partially white; the two exterior ones 

 white and tinged at the tip with a brownish burnt color; 

 the whole under side is pure white; the legs, feet and 

 claws are light blue, the claws very large and strong. 

 The female wants the red on the hind head. 



The nest is built in May in a dead or hollow tree or 

 limb; the bird digs out a hole, cutting directly into the 

 tree some six or eight inches and then obliquely down- 

 wards from twelve to twenty inches. The eggs are from 

 four to six in number, of a clear white color, and one by 

 three- fourths of an inch in size. 



The birds breed and are distributed throughout the 

 eastern United States as far south as North Carolina. 



Their cry is an unbroken tremulous roll, with consider- 

 able interval between strokes. 



The food of these birds consists principally of insects 

 and larvae; it is an exceedingly useful bird for the de- 

 struction of insect life. The mischief it does is two- 

 fold, first by eating fruit and secondly by distribu- 

 ting the seeds of sumac, poison ivy and other objec- 

 tionable plants, these seeds, on account of their hard 

 covering, passing through the alimentary canal of the 

 bird without losing their vitality. Government reports 

 of analyses of 82 stomachs indicated that the contents 

 were 68 per cent, insects, 31 per cent, vegetable and 1 

 per cent. sand. One-third of the insects were ants and 

 one-third beetles, the latter mostly of the wood-boring 

 kind, together with large quantities of plant lice, cater- 

 pillars and similar insects. 



IVioodpecker, Red-bellied. — Length, nine and a half 

 inches; extent, seventeen inches; bill, one and one-tenth 



