186 NEW-YORK FAUNA — BIRDS. 



THE HAIRY WOODPECKER. 



PlCUS VILLOSUS. 

 PLATE XV. FIG. 32 (Male). 



(STATE COLLECTION.) 



Picus villosus, L1NN.EUS, Syst. Nat. p. 175. Hairy Woodpecker, Pennant, Arct. Zool. Vol. 2, p. 273. 



P. id. Sabine, Franklin's Journey. Bonaparte, Ann. Lye. N. Y. Vol. 2, p. 46. Aububon, fol. pi. 416. 



P. (Dendrocopus) id. Rich. &. Swainson, F. B. A. Vol. 2, p. 305. Kirtland, Zool. Ohio, p. 162. Peabodt, 



Mass. Rep. p. 337. Aodubon, B. of A. Vol.4, p. 244, pi. 262; and canadensis, Id. 



Vol.4, p. 235, pi. 258. 

 P. villosus et canadensis. GlRAUD, Birds of Long island, pp. 174, 176. 



Characteristics. Varied with black and white ; beneath white. Back with long slender 

 loose feathers. Two external tail-feathers white. A red occipital band. 

 Female, no red occipital band. Length, 8^ inches. 



Description. Bill as long as the head, straight : upper mandible with a carina on each 

 side. Tarsus short, feathered above. Claws acute, channelled, dilated on their edges. First 

 quill shortest ; fourth and fifth longest. Tail moderate, concave, wedge-shaped ; the middle 

 feathers pointed. 



Color. Above black, varied with white ; the wings spotted with white, and representing 

 interrupted bands : along the back, the white predominates. Frontlet with bristly cream- 

 colored feathers, intermixed with black ones, and covering the nostrils. Front of the head, 

 eye-stripe and a triangular stripe on the sides of the neck, black. Occiput with a scarlet 

 band. Outer tail-feathers black at their bases, rufous or reddish white towards their tips ; 

 the two outer being nearly wholly white. Female, more tinged with brown, and without the 

 red patch on the head ; somewhat smaller. 



Length, 8'0. Alar spread, 15* 0, 



The Hairy Woodpecker is a constant resident in this State during the whole year. The 

 eggs are white, unspotted. It feeds on insects and their larva?, which infest trees. Its range 

 extends from Texas to the 63d parallel of north latitude. 



Audubon has figured the male of a species which he names canadensis, and which appears to 

 differ only from the above in being larger, with the fourth toe slightly longer, and the bill pro- 

 portionally stouter. He himself admits that " it differs in no appreciable degree either in 

 form or color from P. villosus, which it also resembles in the texture of its plumage, and in 

 the relative proportion of the quills and tail-feathers." 



