PICUS VARIUS* 



YOUNG YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 



[Plate VIII. Fig. 1, 2.] 



Ficus varins, Linn. Syst. i., p. 176, Sp. 20. Gmel. Syst. i., p. 438, Sp. 20. Lath. 

 Ind. p. 232, Sp. 21. Vieill. Ois de V Am. Sept. ii., p. 63, pi. 118, adult Male ; 

 pi. 119, very young. — Picus varhis carolinensis, Briss. Av. iv., p. 62, Sp. 24. — 

 Picus varius minoi-, ventre luteo, the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Catesby, Caro- 

 lina, I., p. 21, pi. 21, left- figure, adult Male. Bartr. Trav. p. 291. — Epeiche ou 

 Pic. variide la Caroline, Buff. Ois. vii., p. 77. PI. Enl. 785, adult Male. — 

 Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Penn. Arct. Zool. Sp. 166. Lath. Sya. i., p. 574, Sp. 

 20. 



As Wilson's history of this well known Woodpecker is complete, and 

 his description obviously discriminates the sexes and young, we shall 

 refer the reader entirely to him for information on those points. The 

 present bird is introduced on account of its anomalous plumage ; for, 

 although the color of the head is but slightly advanced towards its red 

 tint, having only two or three reddish points visible on the forehead, 

 yet the patch on the breast is quite as obvious as it is found in the 

 adult state. In young birds of the first and second years, this patch 

 is usually obsolete, the breast being chiefly dusky-gray, although the 

 crown is entirely red. 



The specimen before us, possibly exhibiting one of the periodical 

 states of plumage of this changeable bird, is the only one we have been 

 able to procure, amongst a great number of the young of both sexes 

 in the ordinary dress. The well marked patch on the breast might 

 induce the belief that this individual is an adult female, and that this 

 sex, as several writers have erroneously remarked, is destitute of the 

 red crown ; but, in addition to the fact that our specimen proved, on 

 dissection, to be a male, we obtained, almost every day during the 

 month of November, young birds of both sexes, with the crown entirely 

 red, or more or less sprinkled with that color, the intermixture arising 

 altogether from age or advanced plumage, and not from sex. We are 

 unable to state, with any degree of certainty, at what period the bird 

 assumes the plumage now represented ; and we rather incline to the 

 opinion that it is an accidental variety. 



For the purpose of comparison, we have added, on the same plate, 



* See Wilson's American Ornithology, i., p. 179, PI. 9, fig. 2, for the adult, and 

 history. 



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