320 YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 



ring autumn and winter, frequently hanging head downwards at the ex- 

 tremity of a bunch of grapes, or such berries as those you see repre- 

 sented in the Plate. 



1 found this species extremely abundant in the vipper parts of the 

 State of Maine, and in the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, 

 but saw none in Newfoundland or Labrador. 



While travelling I observed that they performed their migration by 

 day, in loose parties or families of six or seven individuals, flying at a 

 great heightj and at the intervals between their sailings and the flappings 

 of their wings, emitting their remarkable plaintive cries. When alight- 

 ing towards sunset, they descended with amazing speed in a tortuous 

 manner, and first settled on the tops of the highest trees, where they re- 

 mained perfectly silent for a while, after which they betook themselves to 

 the central parts of the thickest trees, and searched along the trunks for 

 abandoned holes of squirrels or woodpeckers, in which they spent the 

 night, several together in the same hole. On one occasion, while I was 

 watching their movements at a late hour, I was much surprised to see a 

 pair of them disputing the entrance of a hole with an owl (St?-ix Asio), 

 which for nearly a quarter of an hour tried, but in vain, to drive them 

 away from its retreat. The owl alighted sidewise on the tree under its 

 hole, swelled out its plumage, blew and hissed with all its might ; but the 

 two Woodpeckers so guarded the entrance with their sharp biUs, their 

 eyes flushed, and the feathers of their heads erected, that the owner of 

 the abode was at length forced to relinquish his claims. The next day at 

 noon I returned to the tree, when I found the Uttle nocturnal vagrant 

 snugly ensconsed in his diurnal retreat. 



This species of Woodpecker does not obtain the full beauty of its 

 plumage until the second spring ; and the variety of colouring which it 

 presents in the male and female, the old and young birds, renders it one 

 of the most interesting of those found in the United States. 



Picus VAUius, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 176 — Ch. Bonaparte, Svnops. of Birds of the 



United States, p. 45. 

 Picus (Dendrocopus) varius, Swains, and Richards. Fauna Bor. Amer. vol. ii. p. 309. 

 Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Picus varius, Wils. Amer. Ornith. voL i. p. 147. 



pi. 9. fig. 2. Male Ch. Bonaparte, Amer. Ornith. vol. i. p. 75. pi. 8. fig. 1, 2, 



young Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. 574. 



Adult Male. Plate CXC. Fig. 1. 



Bill longish, straight, strong, tapering, compressed towards the end, 



