26 GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER. 



are of a beautiful golden yellow that on the shafts of the pri- 

 maries being very distinguishable, even when the wings are 

 shut; the rump is white, and remarkably prominent; the tail- 

 coverts white, and curiously serrated with black; upper side of 

 the tail, and the tip below, black, edged with light loose fila- 

 ments of a cream colour, the two exterior feathers serrated with 

 whitish; shafts black towards the tips, the two middle ones near- 

 ly wholly so; bill an inch and a half long, of a dusky horn colour, 

 somewhat bent, ridged only on the top, tapering, but not to a 

 point, that being a little wedge-formed; legs and feet light blue; 

 iris of the eye hazel; length twelve inches, extent twenty. The 

 female differs from the male chiefly in the greater obscurity of 

 the fine colours, and in wanting the black mustaches on each 

 side of the throat. This description, as well as the drawing, 

 was taken from a very beautiful and perfect specimen. 



Though this species, generally speaking, is migratory, yet 

 they often remain with us in Pennsylvania during the whole 

 winter. They also inhabit the continent of North America, from 

 Hudson's Bay to Georgia; and have been found, by voyagers, 

 on the northwest coast of America. They arrive at Hudson's 

 Bay in April, and leave it in September. Mr. Hearne, however, 

 informs us, that " the Golden-winged Woodpecker is almost 

 the only species of Woodpecker that winters near Hudson's 

 Bay." The natives there call it Ou-thee-quan-nor-ow, from 

 the golden colour of the shafts and lower side of the wings. It 

 has numerous provincial appellations in the different states of 

 the Union, such as " High-hole," from the situation of its nest, 

 and " Hittock," " Yucker," " Piut," " Flicker," by which last 

 it is usually known in Pennsylvania. These names have pro- 

 bably originated from a fancied resemblance of its notes to the 

 sound of the words; for one of its most common cries consists of 

 two notes or syllables, frequently repeated, which, by the help 

 of the hearer's imagination, may easily be made to resemble any 

 or all of them. 



