

SPECIES 5. PIC US 

 YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 

 [Plate IX. Fig. 2.] 



Picus varius, LINN. Syst. i, 176, 20. GMEL. Sijst. i, 438. Le 

 pic varie de la Caroline, BUFF, vn, 77. P/. Jrz/. 785. Yellow- 

 bellied Woodpecker, CATESB. i, 21. Jirct. Zool. n, JVo. 166. 

 LATH. %n. n, 574, 20. Id. Sup.p. 109. PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 

 2004. 



THIS beautiful species is one of our resident birds. It visits 

 our orchards in the month of October, in great numbers; is oc- 

 casionally seen during the whole winter and spring; but seems 

 to seek the depths of the forest, to rear its young in; for during 

 summer, it is rarely seen among our settlements; and even in 

 the intermediate woods, I have seldom met with it in that sea- 

 son. According to Brisson, it inhabits the continent from Cay- 

 enne to Virginia; and I may add, as far as to Hudson's Bay; 

 where according to Hutchins, they are called Mekisewe Pau- 

 pastaow;* they are also common in the states of Kentucky and 

 Ohio, and have been seen in the neighbourhood of St. Louis. 

 They are reckoned by Georgi, among the birds that frequent 

 the lake Baikal, in Asia,t but their existence there has not been 

 satisfactorily ascertained. 



The habits of this species are similar to those of the Hairy 

 and Downy Woodpeckers, with which it generally associates; 

 and which are both represented in the same plate. The only 

 nest of this bird which I have met with, was in the body of an 

 old pear-tree, about ten or eleven feet from the ground. The 

 hole was almost exactly circular, small for the size of the bird, 

 so that it crept in and out with difficulty, but suddenly widen- 



* Latham. f Ibid. 



