540 



NOHTII AMKUICAN' IJUIDS. 



in 4,«1;'>1, frnin tlic rjip''!' ^rissouri, tlu' outer wcl* of tlio same featiier lias 

 nearly, and in 2,107, l'n»ni Carlisle, it lias ([uite, as nuuh white us tlu; inner 

 wel). 'lie outer wel»s do not ai>i»ear to vary so much. 



Specimens from the whole of Mexico, iiichulinj; even the west coast, are 

 relerrihle to carlt's ; they are pruhably winter nii^^nuits from the eastern 

 United States. 



A female, from Washin«,'ton, 1>. ('. (Xo. 12,2(1(1, C. Orexler), has the lower 

 half of the throat much mixed with red, as in var. niuhaUa ; hut there is no 

 trace of this color on the naj)e. A male from Carlisle (Xo. 12,071, W. M. 

 T^)aird) has the nape distinctly tinged with red, as in muhulu, hut the hlack 

 malar stri])e is uninterruj)ted. Similar specimens have been taken in X^ew 

 Eii'dand, hv Messrs. IJrewster and Henshaw. 



Many females occur with the entire jtileum glossy -1 >lack, there being no 

 trace of red, though there are sometimes s})ecks of white. 



IIaijits. The Yellow-bellied Wood})ecker is found throughout the United 

 States, from the (lulf of Mexico on the south and the Atlantic on the east 

 to the IJockv Mountains, and is met with as far to the north as the Gist 

 ]iarallel of latitude. Sir John Richardson found it common in the fur coun- 

 tries, being the only W<»odi)ecker that visits those regions in flocks, lie 

 observed the Yellow-bellied \Voodj>ecker on the north shore of Lake Huron 

 on the 14th of Ajnil, in lS2r), and in 1827 it made its first ajipearance for 

 the season, on the jdains of the Saskatchewan, on the 14th of May. Swain- 

 son received specimens of this AYoodj^ecker from Mexico. De la Sagra and 

 Dr. Gundlach both give it in their list of Cuban birds, though not as breed- 

 inir on that island. Cosse obtained several siiecimens in the months of 

 December, January, and February, in Jamaica, where he regarded it as only 

 a winter mijimnt from the northern continent. It is not given bv the New- 

 tons among the birds of St. Croix, Init appears in Sclater's list of the birds 

 of Central America, on the authority of Mr. George M. Skinner. Two 

 specimens have been taken in Greenland. 



Wilson, in his account of its breeding habits, sjieaks of it as a resident 

 bird from Cayenne to Hudson's r>ay, as being common in the States of Ken- 

 tucky and Ohio, and as having been found in the neighborhood of St. Louis. 

 He describes the habits of this species as simihir to those of the Hairy and 

 Downy AVoodpeckers, with which it generally associates. The only nest of 

 this l)ird which AVilson ever met with was in the body of an old pear-tree, 

 about ten or eleven feet from the ground. The hole was almost exactlv cir- 

 cular, small for the size (jf the bird, so that it crei)t in and out with difficulty ; 

 hut the excavation suddenly widened, descending by a small angle, and then 

 running downward about fifteen inches. On the smooth solid wood lay four 

 white eL!gs. This was about the 2r)th of Alay. 



Mr. Audubon, on the other hand, speaks of this s])ecies as returning to 

 Louisiana and the other Southern States only about the beginning of Octo- 

 ber, remaining there during the winter, and again taking its departure before 



