PICUS ERYTHROCEPHALUS. 



YOUNG RED-HEADED WOODPECKER.* 



[Plate XIV. Fig. 3.] 



Picus ei-ythrocephalus, Linn. Sysi. i., p. 174, Sp. 7. Mus. Adolph. Frid. ii., p. 21. 

 Briss. Orn. iv., p. 52, Sp. 19, PI. 3, fig, 1. Id. 8vo. ii., p. 50. Gmel. Syst. i., p. 

 429, Sp. 7. BoRowsK, Nat. ii., p. 130, Sp. 4. Lath. hid. p. 227, Sp. 9, adult. 

 ViEiLL. Ois. Am. Sept. ii., p. 60, PI. 112, adult; PI. 113, young. — Picus obscurus, 

 Gmel. Syst. i., p. 429, Lath. Ind. p. 228, Sp. II, young. — Picus capite fuin rubra, 

 the Red-headed Woodpecker, Catesbv, Car. i., PI. 20, adult. — Picus capite colloqui 

 rubris, Ki.ein, Av. p. 28, Sp. 12, adult. — Picus capite toto rubra, Kalm, It. iii., 

 PI. 43, adult. — Picchio di testa rossa, Staria degli Ucc. PI. 170, adult. — Pic nair 

 d domino rouge. Buff. Ois. vii., p. 55, adult. — Pic de Virginie, Buff. PI. Enl. 

 117, adult. — Pic tricolor, Vieill. I. c. adult and young. — Red-headed Woodpecker, 

 Penn. A7-ct. Zuol. Sp. 160. -Kalm, Trav. {Angl.) ii., p. 86. Lath. Synop. ii., p. 

 561, adult. — White-rumjjed Woodpecker, Lath. Syn. ii., p. 563, Sp. 10, young. 



The state in which the common Red-headed Woodpecker is here 

 represented, has given rise to a nominal species ; and it is in fact so 

 difficult to recognise for that bird, that we have thought proper, after 

 the example of Vieillot, to give an e.xact figure of it. We feel no diffi- 

 dence in affirming, that in this, through the exertions of Messrs. Rider 

 and Lawson, we have fully succeeded ; and it will perhaps be allowed 

 to be the best representation of a bird ever engraved. We have nothing 

 to add to Wilson's excellent account of the manners of this very com- 

 mon species, and therefore shall limit ourselves to the description of the 

 young as represented. 



The young Red-headed Woodpecker is nine and a half inches long, 

 and seventeen inches in extent. The bill is short and robust, being but 

 one-eighth more than an inch in length : the upper mandible has the 

 ridge slightly curved : the bill is horn color, whitish at base beneath ; 

 the setaceous feathers covering the nostrils are very short, and not 

 thick, rufous gray tipped with black ; the whole head, neck, and upper 

 parts of the breast (which are red in the adult), are blackish, each 

 feather broadly edged with whitish, giving the throat the appearance of 

 being whitish streaked with blackish ; the auriculars are plain dusky 

 black ; from the breast beneath all is dingy white, the feathers of the 

 breast and lower tail-coverts having dusky shafts : the back and sca- 

 pulars are black, the feathers being margined with whitish gray ; the 

 rump and upper tail-coverts pure white ; the wings are five inches and 

 a half long ; the spurious feather very short, the first primary subequal 



* See Wilson's American Ornithology, i., p. 175, PI. 9, fig. 1, for the adult. 



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