35 6 THE RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 



He's the beatenest bird an' he don't care a straw ! 

 W'y, he takes what he wants, without license 'r law, 

 An' he chatters with fun at the crack of a gun 

 While he's fillin' his famishin' craw. 

 I'll be hanged if I don't kind o' fancy 'im though 

 He's so blamed independent an' keerless, you know ; 

 An' I'd feel sort o' bad an' consider'ble sad, 

 If he'd mind by complainin' an' go. 

 Malta, 0. James Ball Nayloi 



No. 156. 



RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 



A. O. U. No. 409. Centurus carolinus (Linn.). 



Description. Adult male: Top of head, including nasal tufts, and hind- 

 neck bright scarlet ; back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and exposed portion of second- 

 aries regularly and strikingly black-and-white-barred ; primaries black terminally 

 but with touches of white on both webs toward base ; upper tail-coverts white, or 

 slightly barred ; tail black, the two outer pairs of feathers terminally, and the cen- 

 tral pair on the inner web, black-and-white-barred; concealed base of central pair 

 white along shaft of outer web ; under parts ashy or sordid white, usually with a 

 buffy tinge on breast and belly, red-tinged on circum-ocular region and on center of 

 belly, rarely also on breast; flanks and crissum black-and- white-ban ed; bill and 

 feet dark plumbeous. Adult female : Similar, but crown broadly ash ; separating 

 red areas on forehead and nape. Immature : Similar to adults, but duller colored ; 

 buff instead of red-tinged on belly. Length 9.00-10.00 (228.6-254.) ; av. of eleven 

 Columbus specimens: wing 5.27 (133.9) ; tail 3-^ (80.8) ; bill 1.15 (29.2). 



Recognition Marks. Robin size ; bright red on head and neck above ; "lad- 

 der back" black and white ; "cho^cv-choiu" cry. 



Nest, in holes in trees at considerable heights, unlined. Eggs, 4-6, pure white. 

 Av. size, .99 x .73 (25.2 x 18.5). 



General Range. Eastern and Southern United States, north casually to 

 Massachusetts, New York, Ontario, southern Michigan, and central Iowa ; west to 

 eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, Indian Territory, and Texas. 



Range in Ohio. Rather common resident; less common in northern part of 

 state. Non-migratory. 



FOR the coincidence I shall not try to account, but it is a fact that when- 

 ever the bird-man clears the snow from a log where the wood-choppers have 

 been at work, and sits down after a long morning's work with the birds, to a 



