EED-BELLIED -WOODPECKEE. 399 



witli any propriety be applied. It lacks the long extensile tongue which 

 enables the other Woodpeckers to probe the winding galleries of wood- 

 eating larvEB, and is known to feed largely upon the green inner bark of 

 trees. In some localities it is said to destroy many trees by stripping off 

 the bark. In this locality its numbers are never so great as to prove 

 destructive, on the other hand, its visits are of great benefit to our gar- 

 dens and orchards. It destroys great numbers of pupae of ^gerians, 

 which inhabit our maple, peach and pear trees, as well as currant-bush 

 borers, and coddling moths of our apple trees. 



No one seems to have discovered for what purpose the tongue of birds 

 of this genus differs so greatly from those of other members of the family, 

 and the suggestion offers that their food is not obtained from the interior 

 of trees, but from the bark and small pithy branches. 



The breeding range of this bird is not clearly made out. The older 

 writers gave it as breeding where it is now recognized as migrant only. 

 Perhaps it breeds in Northern Ohio; I once observed a pair digging am 

 excavation about fifty feet from the ground in a tall ash on the edge of 

 woods, in May. This they deserted, however, before it was completed. 

 They are known to breed from Northern New York, northward. The 

 nest is described as high up in some dead tree, and the eggs as pure 

 white, measuring .95 by .70. 



Genus CENTUEUS. Swainson. 



Bill with lateral ridges not extending to tip or commissure. Nostrils very broadly 

 oval. Posterior outer toe shorter than anterior outer. 



Cbntdrus carolinus (L.) Sw. 



lited-bellied "Wooclpeclier. 



Picus carolinus, Wilson, Am. Orn., i, 1808, 113.— Kirtland, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 



162.— Bead, Proo. Phila. Acad. Nat. Soi., vi, 18.'53, 395. 

 Centvrus carolinus, Kirkpateick, Ohio Farmer, ix, 1860, 331. — Wheaton, Ohio Agric. 



Eep. for 1860, 1861, 362; Reprint, 4; Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Kep, for 1874, 



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



Gin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 178 ; Reprint, 12. 

 Red-bellied Woodpecker, Ballou, Field and Forest, iii, 1678, 136. 



Picus carolinus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 174. 

 Cmturus carolinus, SWAiNSON, Class B., ii, 1837, 310. 



Back and wings, except larger quills, closely banded with black and white ; primaries 

 with large white blotches near the base, and usually a few smaller spots. Whole 

 crown and nape scarlet in the male, partly so in the female; sides of head and under 

 parts grayish-white, usually with a yellow shade, reddening on belly ; flanks and cris- 

 Bum with sagittate-black marks ; taU black, one or two outer feathers white barred ; 



