THE YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER. 349 



"The nest of this species is generally bored in the body of a sound tree, 

 near its first large branches. I observed no particular choice as to timber, 

 having seen it in oaks, pines, etc. The nest, like that of other allied species, 

 is worked out by both sexes and takes fully a week before it is completed, its 

 usual depth being from twenty to twenty-four inches. It is smooth and 

 broad at the bottom, altho so narrow at its entrance as to appear scarcely 



sufficient to enable one of the birds' to enter it Only one brood 



is raised in the season. The young follow their parents until autumn, "when 

 they separate and shift for themselves." . . (Audubon). 



A recent writer, Mr. James H. Fleming, 1 says also : "This Woodpecker 

 has a habit of sometimes nesting in colonies. I saw the nests of such a 

 colony near Sand Lake in 1896; there were six or seven nests, each cut into 

 the trunk of a living cedar, just below the first branch, and usually eight or 

 ten feet from the ground. The cedars were in a dense forest, overlooking a 

 small stream that empties into Sand Lake. Four eggs seem to be the full 

 set. The young are hatched by the first of June." 



No. 153. 



YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER. 



A. O. U. No. 402. Sphyrapicus varius. (Linn.). 



Description. Adult male : Forehead and crown crimson-red, bordered nar- 

 rowly on both sides and broadly behind with glossy black ; chin and throat crimson, 

 bordered with black on both sides, continuous with a broad, glossy black pectoral- 

 patch; a black band beginning at eye and running obliquely downward to join 

 black of scapulars, separating two white stripes, one starting from the eye and 

 meeting its fellow on the nape, the other starting from nostril and joining lower 

 breast; remaining upper parts black and white in longitudinal patches, and black- 

 and-white cross-barred ; a central dorsal and scapular patch glossy black, another 

 dead black, formed by primary coverts, and continued obliquely backward by basal 

 black of primaries ; lesser, middle, and greater coverts white on exposed webs, 

 forming continuous lengthwise patch ; remaining portions of back and wings 

 black-and-white-barred or, in case of wing-quills, white-spotted in such a way as to 

 form continuous white bars on closed wing; tail-feathers black except on inner 

 webs of central pair, which are black-and-white-barred ; the outer pair, and even 

 second, sometimes exhibit marginal or terminal white in spots ; remaining lower 

 parts sulphury-yellow, clear and intense on area adjoining black of breast, clear 

 but paler on middle line of breast and belly ; the sides and flanks sordid, heavily 

 streaked or with subterminal V-shaped markings of dusky. Bill and feet dark 

 plumbeous. Adult female: Similar, but with chin and throat white instead of 

 red; and red of crown sometimes wanting. Immature: Black, white, and red 



1 Birds of Parry Sound and Muskoka, Ontario. The Auk, Vol. XVIII, p. 39. 



