HAIRY WOODPECKER. 395 



never seen but one of these birds in this county, and that about twenty- 

 years since. One was shot when hammering on the roof of a church in 

 this city about the same time. Old citizens smile as they tell of the fun 

 they had trying to kill with sticks, these birds which frequented the trees 

 on the grounds of the " first school house." 



The nest of the Pileated Woodpecker is an excavation dug out by the 

 bill of the bird in a large limb or trunk of a high tree either living or 

 dead. The eggs are of a rounded oval shape, glistening white, unmarked, 

 and measure 1.25 by 1.02. 



Genus PICUS. Linnssus. 



Bill with a lateral tidge extending from base to tip. Cater posterior toe longer than 

 outer anterior. Nostrils linsar. 



Picus TILL03US Linnseus. 



JHairy "Woodpeclier. 



P»ci48 villoBus, KiRTLiND, Ohio Geolog. Sarv., 1838, 162.— Rbad, Proo. Phila. Aoad. Nat. 

 Soi., vi, 1853, 395.— Kikkpatrick, Ohio Farmer, ix, 1860, 267.— Wheaton, Ohio 

 Agrio. R»p. for 1860, 1881, 363 ; Reprint, 4 ; Pood of Birds, etc., Ohio Agrio. Rep. for 

 1874, 1875, 569; Reprint, 9.— Langdon, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 11 ; Revised List, 

 Journ. Cin. Soo. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 178 ; Reprint, 12. 



Fious rubrieapillus, Read, Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sol., vi, 1853, 395. 



Hairy Woodpecker, Ballou, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 136. 



Picus villoaus, LiNNiBUS, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 175. 

 Picas ruSricopiZ^MS, NuTT ALL, Man., i, 1840, 685. 



Back black, ■with a long white stripe ; quills and wing coverts with a profusion of white 

 •pots ; four middle tail feathers black, next pair black and white, next two pairs white ; 

 under parts white ; crown and sides of head black ; with a white stripe over and behind 

 the eye, another from the nasal feathers running below the eye to spread on the side 

 of the neck, and a scarlet nuchal band in the male, wanting in the female ; young 

 with the crown mostly red or bronzy, or even yellowish. Length, 9-10 ; wing nearly 5 ; 

 tail, 3J. 



Habitat, the entire wooded portions of North America — the typical form east of the 

 Rocky Mountains, reaching the Pacific, however, in Alaska. Var. harrisii from the 

 Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. Each variety grading in size according to latitude. 



Rather common resident, more frequent in fall, winter, and early 

 spring than in summer. Breeds; 



The Hairy Woodpecker though most numerous along the edges of 

 woodlands, is a frequent visitor during the colder months, in gardens of 

 the city and in orchards. 



It is less inclined to accept the society of other species than its mina- 

 ture, the Downy Woodpecker, and maintains a dignified manner, as it 

 busies itself searching for the larva of insects in decaying trees, and 

 spiders and eggs of insects in crevices of the bark. 



