i6o 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



opposite was an orchard. Lewis's Woodpeckers 

 persistently visited the orchard when the early 

 apples were ripening. One evening a number of 

 boxes were filled ready for market and were left 

 in the orchard. In the morning it was found 

 that the Woodpeckers had pulled out the papers 

 and pecked the fruit so that it was necessary to 



open and repack several boxes. The moral in 

 this incident is that the fruit-grower should be 

 careful to leave wild fruit-bearing shrubs and 

 trees around his orchard because when these 

 birds cannot satisfy their desire with the fruit 

 they have been accustomed to, they will without 

 doubt turn to cultivated fruits. 



RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER 



Centurus carolinus (Linnccus) 



A. O. U. Number 409 See Color I'late 64 



Other Names. — Zebra liird ; Zebra-back ; Chad ; 

 Shamshack ; Ramshack. 



General Description. — Lengtli, 9;, j inches. Head, 

 red ; upper parts, black with narrow white bars ; under 

 parts, gray and red. 



Color. — Adult Male: Forehead and nasal tufts, 

 light red, the latter usually paler ( sometimes dull 

 whitish) in front; crown, back of head, and hindneck, 

 bright poppy-red, more scarlet on hindneck ; back and 

 shoulders, regularly and sharply barred with black and 

 white, the white bars usually rather narrower than the 

 black, the wing-coverts similarly barred but white bars 

 relatively narrower, the secondaries also with broad 

 white bars changing to spots on the end quills ; prima- 

 ries and primary coverts, black, the former blotched 

 with white sub-basally, the longer quills (except outer- 



most) narrowly edged with white at ends (except in 

 worn plumage), the others tipped or broadly margined 

 at tip witii white ; u])per rump, barred with black and 

 white, but bars less sharply defined than on back; 

 lower rump, white, usually barred, spotted, or broadly 

 streaked with black (rarely immaculate); upper tail- 

 coverts, white, often immaculate, but (usually) v/ith a 

 narrow shaft-streak of black, at least basally ; tail, 

 black, the inner web of middle pair of feathers, white 

 with bars or transverse spots of black (exceedingly 

 variable as to number, size, etc.), the outer web usually 

 with a wedge-shaped longitudinal streak of white on 

 basal half, at least, the lateral feathers tipped with 

 white and with broad (usually interrupted) bars of 

 white on extremities ; lores, over and behind eye, side 

 of head, and cheeks, pale buffy-grayish, usually tinged 



Drawing by R. I. Brashtr 



RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER (J nat. size) 

 A beneficial tree surgeon 



