OF NEW ENGLAND. 321 



momentary glimpse which I then had, I observed nothing 

 peculiar in his habits. I have never found their nest or seen 

 their eggs. 



V. PICUS 



(A) VILLOSUS. Hairy Woodpecker. 



(Not common in Massachusetts, but abundant in the forests 

 of northern New England, where it breeds.) 



(a). About 9 A inches long, g , 

 with a scarlet patch on the hind- 

 head. Under parts, central back, and 

 outer tail-feathers, white. (Feath- 

 ers about the nostrils, yellowish.) 

 Otherwise black and white. 



[NOTE. There are Western va- 

 rieties of this and the next species, 

 with a soiling of gray on the breast, 

 and without white spots on the 

 wing-coverts.] 



(6). The eggs of each set are 

 four or five, and measure '85 X '65 

 of an inch, or more. The nest is 

 built in woods, or sometimes or- 

 chards, and in Massachusetts is 

 finished about the tenth of May. 



J Fig. 19. Hairy Woodpecker Q). 



(See I, A, 6.) 



(c). The Hairy \Voodpeckers are resident throughout the 

 eastern United States, and in summer, if not also in winter, may 

 be found from the Gulf of Mexico so far to the northward as 

 forests extend. Yet they rarely breed in Eastern Massachu- 

 setts, and are not even common in winter. The constant de- 

 crease of woodland in this part of the State has caused them 

 in a great measure to desert it, but in the forests of Maine 

 and New Hampshire they are abundant throughout the year. 

 Near Boston, they frequent orchards as much as the woods. 

 Excepting in being much less familiar toward man, and more 

 fond of solitude, they scarcely differ in habits from the com- 

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