KED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 175 



Hearne, however, informs us that the " Grolden-winged Woodpecker is 

 almost the only species of Woodpecker that winters near Hudson's 

 Bay." The natives there call it Ou-ihee-quan-nor-ow, from the golden 

 color of the shafts and lower side of the wings. It has numerous pro- 

 vincial appellations in the different States of the Union, such as " High- 

 hole," from the situation of its nest, and " Hittock," " Tucker," " Pint," 

 "Flicker," by which last it is usually known in Pennsylvania. These 

 names have probably originated from a fancied resemblance of its notes 

 to the sound of the words ; for one of its most common cries consists 

 of two notes or syllables, frequently repeated, which, by the help of the 

 hearer's imagination, may easily be made to resemble any or all of them. 



Species IV. PIOUS EBYTHROCEPHALUS. 



EED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 



[Plate IX. Fig. 1.] 



Picus erythrocephalus, Linn. Syst. i., 174, 7. — Gmel. Syst. i., 429. — Pic noir d 

 domino rouge, Bufpon, vii., 55. PI. Enl. 117. — Catesbt, I., 20. — Arct. Zool. ii., 

 No. 160.— Lath. Syn. ii., 561.* 



There is perhaps no bird in North America more universally known 

 r.han this. His tri-colored plumage, red, white, and black glossed with 

 steel blue, is so striking, and characteristic ; and his predatory habits 

 in the orchards and corn-fields, added to his numbers, and fondness for 

 hovering along the fences, so very notorious, that almost every child is 

 iicquainted with the Red-headed Woodpecker. In the immediate neigh- 

 borhood of our large cities, where the old timber is chiefly cut down, he 

 is not so frequently found; and yet at this present time, June, 1808, I 

 know of several of their nests, within the boundaries of the city of 

 Philadelphia. Two of these are in button-wood trees {Platanus occi- 

 denialis), and another in the decayed limb of an elm. The old ones, I 

 (ibserve, make their excursions regularly to the woods beyond the 

 Kchuylkill, about a mile distant ; preserving great silence and circum- 

 spection in visiting their nests ; precautions not much attended to by 

 them in the depths of the woods, because there the prying eye of man 

 is less to be dreaded. Towards the mountains, particularly in the vicin- 

 ity of creeks and rivers, these birds are extremely abundant, especially 

 in the latter end of summer. Wherever you travel in the interior, at 



* We add the following synonymes :— Picus ohscurus, Gmel. Syst. I., 429, young 

 —Lath. Tnd. Orn. 228. — Picus Virginianus erythrocephalus, Bbiss. 4, p. 52. 



