186 
NEW-YORK FAUNA-BIRDS. 
THE HAIRY WOODPECKER. 
PlCUS VILLOSUS. 
PLATE XV. FIG. 32 (Male). 
(STATE COLLECTION.> 
Pirns villosus , LiNNiEUs, Syst. Nat. p. 175. Hairy Woodpecker , Pennant, Arct. Zool. Vol. 2, p. 273. 
P.id. Sabine, Franklin's Journey. Bonaparte, Ann. Lyc. N. Y. Vol. 2, p. 46. Aububon, fol. pi. 416. 
P. (Deiidrocopus) id. Rich. &. Swainson, F. B. A. Vol. 2, p. 305. Kirtland, Zool. Ohio, p. 162. Peabody- 
Mass. Rep. p. 337. Audubon, B. of A. Vol. 4, p.244, pi. 262; and canadensis, Id, 
Vol. 4, p. 235, pi. 258. 
P. villosus et canadensis. Giraud, Birds of Long island, pp. 174, 176. 
Characteristics. Varied with black and white ; beneath white. Back with long slender 
loose feathers. Two external tail-feathers white. A red occipital band. 
Female, no red occipital band. Length, 8^ inches. 
Description. Bill as long as the head, straight: upper mandible with a carina on each 
side. Tarsus short, feathered above. Claws acute, channelled, dilated on their edges. First 
quill shortest; fourth and fifth longest. Tail moderate, concave, wedge-shaped ; the middle 
feathers pointed. 
Color. Above black, varied with white; the wings spotted with white, and representing 
interrupted bands : along the back, the white predominates. Frontlet with bristly cream- 
colored feathers, intermixed with black ones, and covering the nostrils. Front of the head, 
eye-stripe and a triangular stripe on the sides of the neck, black. Occiput with a scarlet 
band. Outer tail-feathers black at their bases, rufous or reddish white towards their tips ; 
the two outer being nearly wholly white. Female, more tinged with brown, and without the 
red patch on the head ; somewhat smaller. 
Length, 8’0. Alar spread, 15'0. 
The Flairy Woodpecker is a constant resident in this State during the whole year. The 
eggs are white, unspotted. It feeds on insects and their larvae, which infest trees. Its range 
extends from Texas to the 63d parallel of north latitude. 
Audubon has figured the male of a species which he names canadensis, and which appears to 
differ only from the above in being larger, with the fourth toe slightly longer, and the bill pro¬ 
portionally stouter. He himself admits that “ it differs in no appreciable degree either in 
form or color from P. villosus, which it also resembles in the texture of its plumage, and in 
the relative proportion of the quills and tail-feathers.” 
