154 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



with the destruction of the forest, is gradually depriving us of one of the 

 most interesting of our native birds. 



Melanerpes erythrocephalus (Linnaeus) 

 Red-headed Woodpecker 



Plate 62 



Picus erythrocephalus Linnaeus. Syst, Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:113 



DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 185, fig. 34 

 Melanerpes erythrocephalus A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 192. 



No. 406 



melanerpes, Gr., (JieXa?, black, and epxT)?, creeper; erythrocephalus, Ipu9p6(;, red, and 

 xsyaXi^, head 



Description. The head and neck deep red or crimson; body, wings 

 and tail blue-black and white in large areas, as the bird flies the white seeming 

 to predominate, but as it clings to the trunk of a tree the back seems mostly- 

 black, but still gives the appearance of the three principal colors, red, 

 bluish black and white; bill, bluish horn color; iris, brown; feet, bluish gray; 

 sexes alike. Young: Grayish where the adults are black and red, during 

 the first winter, the grayish of the head gradually replaced by the crimson, 

 and the grayish of the back, wings and tail by the black. 



Length 9.3-10 inches; extent 17-18; wing 5.3-5.7; tail 3.21-3.7; 

 bill 1.2. 



Distribution. The Red-headed woodpecker is fotind throughout the 



greater portion of the austral region of North America. Although it was 



formerly common in New England and eastern New York, it is now rare 



in those districts, but still locally plentiftd in western New York, as it 



is throughout the Mississippi valley. It must be ranked primarily as 



a summer resident in New York, but in seasons when beech mast and 



chestnuts are abundant this species remains throughout the winter as 



was explained in 1883 by Doctor Merriam. I have noticed the same 



principle to obtain in western New York since the year 1878, but in 



ordinary seasons the Redhead disappears late in October and is not seen 



again until the ist to the loth of May when he arrives from the southern 



states whither he had withdrawn to pass the winter. Even in central 



and western New York this bird is not so uniformly distributed as is the 



