690 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



THE RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER 



Fig. U. In certain localities Red-bellied Woodpeckers occur t'lroughout the United States, ranging into central Texas. The 

 specimen here shown is in the exhibition series of the United States National Museum. Photographed by the author. Male, 

 in full plumage. 



The Hairy Woodpecker and its niear congeners, as well 

 as the species and stilbspecies of the Downy Woodpeckers 

 possess plumage patterns after this order, with several 

 distinct variations. Audubon got the black and white 

 series of woodpeckers all mixed up, while Wilson ap- 

 peared to have known only the Downy and the Hairy 

 indeed, the latter author described but ten species of 

 woodpeckers for the United States, and these included 

 only the most abundant forms. Audubon remarks that 

 "Wilson, it appears, did not believe in the existence of 

 the Canada Woodpecker {Picus canadensis) ; yet his 

 figure of the Hairy Woodpecker seems to me to be a 

 representation of that species, while his description 

 'belongs in part to both," Audubon figured the "Cana- 

 dian Woodpecker," and yet we have no bird bearing 

 that vernacular name in our official list of woodpeckers. 

 Quite possibly it was the bird now called the Northern 

 Hairy Woodpecker {D. villosus leucomelas) ; but to un- 

 tangle all such questions in a list of birds now numbering 

 over forty forms would be quite out of place in the 

 present connection. However, for the benefit of those 



commencing the study of these birds of our avifauna, 

 it may be as well to state that such species of Audubon 

 describes and figures as the "Canadian Woodpecker," 

 Phillips' Woodpecker ("Massachusetts. Very rare.") ; 

 Maria's Woodpecker; Redbreasted Woodpecker; Band- 

 ed Three-toed Woodpecker, and so on, do not occur in 

 our official list. 



Every species of our Hairy and Downy woodpeckers 

 are useful in destroying a great number of different 

 kinds of parasitic insects, their larvae, and grubs, in- 

 festing every variety of forest tree, as well as those of 

 our orchards and gardens. These birds shouild be pro- 

 tected and encouraged at all times, and teachers of Amer- 

 ican ornithology should make every effort to instruct 

 our school children in the matter of recognizing them in 

 the woods and fields, to the end that they may not be 

 targets for the merciless air gun or the more effective 

 weapons of the boy scouts. Good figures of these black 

 and white woodpeckers are here given in Figures 2 and 3. 



Our Red-cockaded Woodpecker is a blacker bird 

 than either the Hairy or Downy, and about between the 



