540 NOUTll AMKIUCAX JilliDS. 



ill 4,(i;!l, fnnH tlid rpiifr ^fissdiiii, tlic oiitor wolt of tin; siiiiie ft'iitlicr luis 

 nearly, autl in l',l(»7, ln»m Carli.slo, it has (juitL', as niiicli white as the inner 

 web. The outer wehs do not apjKMir to vary so niiicli. 



Speeinieiis Iroiii tlie whole of Alexit^i, including; even the west coast, arc 

 rd'errihle to rarins ; they are probably winter migrants from the eastern 

 United States. 



A female, from Washinjiton, I>. C. (Xo. 12,20(1, ('. Dre.vlcr), has the lower 

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

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

 Baird) has the nape ilisti nelly tinged with red, as in nnchalu, but the black 

 malar strijie is uninterrui)ted. Similar .specimens have been taken in New 

 England, by Messrs. Urewstia- and Henshaw. 



]Maiiy females occur with the entire jiileuiii glossy-black, there being no 

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



IIahits. The Yellow-bellied Woodpecker is found throughout the United 

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

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

 ])arallel of latitude. Sir John Itichard.son found it common in the fur coun- 

 tries, being the only Woodpecker that visits those regions in flocks. He 

 observed the Yellow-bellied Woodj)ecker on the north .shore of Lake Huron 

 on the 14th of April, in 1S2."), and in 1S27 it made its first ajipeaiance for 

 the .season, on the i)lains of the Saskatchewan, on the 14th of May. Swain- 

 son received specimens of this Woodjiecker from Mexico. De la Sagra and 

 Dr. Gundlach both give it in their list of ('ul)an birds, though not as breed- 

 ing on that island. (lo.sse olitained .several specimens in the months of 

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

 a winter migrant from the northern continent. It is not given by the New- 

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

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

 si)ecimens have been taken in tireenland. 



Wilson, in his account of its breeding habits, s))eaks of it as a resident 

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

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

 111! describes the haliits of this sjiecies as similar to those of the Hairy and 

 Downy Woodpeckers, with which it generally as.sociates. The only nest of 

 this bird which Wilson ever met with was in the body of an old jiear-tree, 

 abfuit ten or eleven feet from the grovind. The hole was almost exactly cir- 

 cular, small for the size of the bird, so that it crept in and out with difliculty ; 

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

 running downward about fiftiH'U inches. ()n the .smooth solid wood lay four 

 white eggs. This was about the 2r)tli of May. 



Mr. Audubon, on the other hand, speaks of this species 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 



