SPECIES 4. PIC US ER YTHROCEPHAL US. 



RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 



[Plate IX. Fig. 1.] 



Picus erythrocephalus, LINN. Syst. i, 174, 7. GMEL. Syst. i, 429. 



Pic noir A domino rouge. BUFFON, vn, 55. PL Enl. 1 17 CA- 



TESBY, i, 20. Jlrct. ZooL n, JVb. 160. LATH. 8yn.u, 561. 

 PEALE'S Museum, JVb. 1922.* 



THERE is perhaps no bird in North America more univer- 

 sally known than this. His tri-coloured plumage, red, white, 

 and black glossed with steel blue, is so striking, and character- 

 istic; and his predatory habits in the orchards and corn-fields, 

 added to his numbers, and fondness for hovering along the 

 fences, so very notorious, that almost every child is acquainted 

 with the Red-headed Woodpecker. In the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of our large cities, where the old timber is chiefly cut 

 down, he is not so frequently found; and yet at this present time, 

 June, 1808, I know of several of their nests, within the bound- 

 aries of the city of Philadelphia. Two of these are in Button- 

 wood trees (Plat anus Occident aids,} and another in the decay- 

 ed limb of an elm. The old ones, I observe, make their excur- 

 sions regularly to the woods beyond the Schuylkill, about a mile 

 distant; preserving great silence and circumspection in visiting 

 their nests; precautions not much attended to by them in the 

 depth of the woods, because there the prying eye of man is less 

 to be dreaded. Towards the mountains, particularly in the vi- 

 cinity of creeks and rivers, these birds are extremely abundant, 

 especially in the latter end of summer. Wherever you travel 



* We add the following synonymes: Picus obscurus, GMEL. St/sf. 1, 429. 

 young. LATH. lad. Om. 228. Picus Virginianus crythrocephafas, Bniss. 4, p. 

 52. 



