PICID^ — THE WOODPECKERS. 525 



mon. (Eeport of an Expedition down the Zuni and Colorado Eivers, 

 Zoology, p. 89.) Wilson only met with it in the pine woods of North Caro- 

 lina, Georgia, and South Carolina, and does not appear to have been ac- 

 quainted with its habits. Audubon speaks of it as being found abundantly 

 from Texas to New Jersey, and as far inland as Tennessee, and as nowhere 

 more numerous than in the pine barrens of Florida, Georgia, and the Caro- 

 linas. He found these birds mated in Florida as early as January, and 

 engaged in preparing a breeding-place in February. The nest, he states, is 

 not unfrequently bored in a decayed stump about thirty feet high. The eggs 

 he describes as smooth and pure white, and as usually four in number, 

 though he has found as many as six in a nest. Tlie young crawl out of their 

 holes before they are able to fly, and wait on the branches to receive the food 

 brought by their parents until they are able to shift for themselves. During 

 the breeding-season the call of these birds is more than usually lively and 

 petulant, and is reiterated through the pine woods where it is chiefly 

 found. 



Wilson compares the common call-notes of these birds to tlie querulous 

 cries of young birds. His attention was first directed to them by this 

 peculiarity. He characterizes the species as restless, active, and clamorous. 



Though almost exclusively a Southern species, and principally found south 

 of North Carolina, individuals have been known to wander much farther 

 north. Mr. G. N. Lawrence obtained a specimen of this bird in Hoboken, 

 N. J., opposite New York City. 



In quickness of motion this Woodpecker is said to be equalled by very 

 few of the family. Mr. Audubon states that it glides upwards and sideways, 

 along the trunks and branches, on the lower as well as the upper sides of 

 the latter, moving with great celerity, and occasionally uttering a short, shrill, 

 clear cry, that can be heard at a considerable distance. Mr. Audubon kept 

 a wounded one several days. It soon cut its way out of a cage, and as- 

 cended the wall of the room as it would a tree, seizing such spiders and 

 insects as it was able to find. Other than this it would take no food, and 

 was set at liberty. 



In the stomach of one dissected were found small ants and a few minute 

 coleopterous insects. In Florida it mates in January and nests in February. 

 In the winter it seeks shelter in holes, as also in stormy weather. JMr. 

 Audubon states that it occasionally feeds on grain and on small fruits. 

 Some go to the ground to search for those that have fallen from trees. They 

 are always found in pairs, and during the breeding-season are very pugna- 

 cious. 



An egg of this species obtained near ^Vilmington, N. C, by Mr. N. Giles, 

 measures .95 by .70 of an inch. It is pure white, appeared less glossy than 

 the eggs of most Woodpeckers, and was of a more elliptical shape. An- 

 other egg of this bird sent to me by Mr. Samuel Pasco of Monticello, Fla., 

 measures .98 by .70 of an inch, being even more oblong in shape, and cor- 



