224 YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 



Young female. Similar to the male in the same stage, the white of the throat being obscured by brownish but the 

 breast is not as distinctly banded with dusky. 



Nestlings. A pattern of the markings of the more mature stages is retained to a considerable extent but there is a 

 slaty-brown washing obscuring the colors of the back, head, and lower surface whers it is barred with dusky. The males 

 occasionally show some red on the head and throat but out of a large series of females now before me, I do not find one 

 which exhibits the slightest trace of this. Bill and feet, similar to the preceding. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Specimens in the adult stage vary in amount of white markings, especially on the tail, as some have the central feath- 

 ers barred with it. This is also true of the young and even of the nestlings. Occasionally a hand of scarlet replaces the 

 white on the occiput; this constitutes the variety, nuchalis, which was at first supposed to occur only in the West but 

 which may be frequently found in all sections East where the species occurs. The nestlings vary considerably iu amount of 

 sulphury-yellow, usually there are but slight traces of it below but one now before me is slightly tinged with it, even on the 

 top of the head. Readily known from all of our Woodpeckers by the markings as described. Distributed during summer 

 throughout Eastern North America, north of latitude 44, and along the mountain ranges, further south. Winters in 

 Eastern United States, south of the latitude of Pennsylvania. In preparing this article, I am indebted to Messrs. F. H. 

 Brackett and W. B. Dowse and the Bangs Brothers for the use of specimens. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Average measurements of eighteen specimens from Eastern North America. Length, 8'25; stretch, 14'82; wing, 4'86; 

 tail, 2'55; bill, '80; tarsus, '85. Longest specimen, 8 - 75; greatest extent of wing, 15*44; longest wing, 5*00; tail, 3'10; bill, 

 95; tarsus, TOO. Shortest specimen, 7*75; smallest extent of wing, 14*31; shortest wing, 4*6*2; tail, 2*00; bill, -85; tarsus, 

 70. 



DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 



Nests, placed in gourd-shaped holes, usually excavated in dead trees. Dimensions, diameter of external orifice, 1*50, 

 greatest internal, 5'(K). Internal depth, 14*00. 



Eyys, four to seven in number, elliptical in form, pure, polished pearly-white in color, unspotted. Dimensions from 

 60x-75 to -75x-85. 



HABITS. 



The Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers find their summer homes in those vast evergreen 

 forests which still cover a large portion of Northern New England. It is true that these 

 shadowy woodlands are also the chosen resort of several other species of this family but 

 the beautiful birds of which I am speaking, outnumber them all; in fact, one can scarce- 

 ly enter a patch of wood after the first of May without being greeted by their querulous 

 cries. Although found everywhere in the shelter of trees, yet they are most abundant in 

 the vicinity of water for they prefer to build their nests in dead trees that stand in the bor- 

 ders of lakes or ponds. I well remember my first experience in searching for the eggs of 

 the Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers and although, as the sequel will show, it can scarcely be 

 considered as a red-letter day as far as collecting was concerned, yet it was a day full of 

 pleasant reminiscences, one^of which is the little episode which I am about to relate. 



I was at Upton, Maine, in the early summer of 1871 and one day during the second 

 week of June, in company with two friends, who are both well known to the ornithological 

 world, was floating in a small boat on the placid waters of Lake Umbagog. We were 

 rowing along the shore among the dead stubs which were very numerous. The ground 

 on which they stood had evidently been submerged for some time, as the whitened trunks 

 were nearly branchless and, in many cases, were full of holes, many of which had been 

 made for years but nearly all were occupied, the smaller by the White-bellied Swallows and 

 the larger by the Crow Blackbirds. The bleached appearance of the wood around the en- 



