170 RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 



States' schooner, the Spark, as well as my assistants, always spoke of it 

 by the name of chaw-chaw. Perhaps it partly ob.tained this name from 

 the numbers of it cooked by the crew in the same manner as the dish 

 known to sailors by the same name. It is, however, less common in the 

 United States than the Hairy Woodpecker ; but its range is as extensive, 

 for I have found it from the Texas to the extremities of the British pro- 

 vinces of Nova Scotia, and as far inland as I have travelled. It appears 

 however that it does not inhabit the Fur Countries, as no mention is 

 made of it by Dr Richardson, in the Fauna Boreali- Americana. It is 

 generally more confined to the interior of the forests, especially during 

 the time of its breeding, than the Hairy Woodpecker, although in 

 winterly I have found it quite as easily approached. In autumn it fre- 

 quently occurs in the corn-fields, where it takes its share of the grain, 

 in common with the Hairy, the Downy, and other Woodpeckers. It 

 is a lively and active bird, fond of rolling its tappings against the de- 

 cayed top-branches of trees, often launching forth after passing insects, 

 and feeding during winter on all such berries as it can procure. Its 

 flight is strong and better sustained than that of the Yellow-bellied or 

 Hairy Woodpeckers, and, like the Golden-winged species, it not un- 

 frequently alights across the smaller branches of the trees, a habit 

 which, I assure you, is oftener exhibited than has been supposed, by 

 all our species of this interesting tribe of birds. 



I never found its nest in Louisiana or South Carolina ; but it is 

 not uncommon to meet with it in Kentucky ; and from Maryland to 

 Nova Scotia these birds breed in all convenient places, usually more in 

 the woods than out of them, although I have found their nests in or- 

 chards in Pennsylvania, generally not far from the junction of a branch 

 with the trunk. The hole is bored in the ordinary manner. The eggs 

 are seldom more than foiu- in number; they measure one inch and 

 half an eighth in length, three-fourths of an inch in breadth, are of an 

 elliptical form, smooth, piu-e white, and translucent. In so far as I 

 have been able to discover, this species produces only one brood in a 

 season. The young remain in or about the nest until able to fly well. 



The difPerence which this species exhibits in the sound of its notes 

 has always been a matter of interest to me ; they fall upon the ear as 

 if the bird were suffering from a severe catarrh, and yet may be heard 

 at times at the distance of a hundred yards. They resemble the 



