Birds of Pennsylvania. 



135 



on the very vegetable life of the tree — the alburnum, or newly form- 

 ing bark and wood. The consequence is, that the whole branches and 

 whole trees decay under the silent ravages of these destructive vermin ; 

 witness the late destruction of many hundred acres of pine trees in 

 the north-eastern parts of South Carolina, and the thousands of peach 

 trees that yearly decay from the same cause. Will any one say that 

 taking half a dozen or half a hundred apples from a tree is equally 

 ruinous with cutting it down, or that the services of a useful animal 

 should not be rewarded with a small portion of that which it has con- 

 tributed to preserve? We are told, in the benevolent language of the 

 Scriptures, not to muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the 

 corn ; and why should not the same generous liberality be extended 

 to this useful family of birds, which form so powerful a phalanx against 

 the inroads of many millions of destructive vermin ?" 



409. Melanerpes carolinus (Linn.). 



Red -bellied Woodpecker. 



Description. 



Top of head and nape crimson read; forehead whitish, strongly tinged with light 

 red, a shade of which is also seen on the cheek; still stronger on the middle of the 

 belly. Under jiarts brownish white, with a faint wash of yellowish on the belly; 

 back, rump and wing coverts banded black and white; upper tail coverts white, 

 with occasional blotches; tail feathers black; tirst transversely banded with white; 

 second less so; all the rest with whitish tips; inner feathers l)anded with white on 

 the inner web; the outer web with a stripe of white along the middle; iris red. 



Female with the crown ashy; forehead pale red; nape right red. 



Length, 9^ inches; extent about 17; wing about 5 inches. 



Flab. — Eastern United States, to the Rocky mountains; rare or accidental east of 

 the Hudson river. 



Audubon found nests of Red-bellied Woodpeckers in orchards in 

 Pennsylvania. The Messrs. Baird, writing in 1844, mention this spv^cies 

 as occuring in the vicinity of Carlisle, Cumberland county, in refer- 

 ence to it they say: "Abundant; most so in winter; resident." 



Dr. Ezra Michener, in his Chester county list of 1863, records this 



