366 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
In Kalamazoo county the late Richard B. Westnedge took nests of fresh 
eggs from May 21 to May 28, and often farther north eggs are not laid 
before the first week in June. The nest is a hole in the dead trunk or 
branch of a tree, the entrance being about 1% inches in diameter and the 
depth of the hole varying from eight inches to two feet. Usually the nests 
are at a considerable height from the ground, rarely less than ten feet and 
often sixty feet or more. Not infrequently telephone poles are used for 
nesting, but we have never seen a nest in a fencepost. But one brood is 
reared in the season, but, as with other species, a second laying is made 
if the first set of eggs be taken (July 11, 1877, Kalamazoo county). The 
eggs vary from four to seven, are white, unspotted and glossy, and average 
.97 by .75 inches. 
TECHNICAL DNSCRIPTION. 
Adult male: Entire head and neck, all round, deep crimson; back, scapulars, and most 
of wings glossy black; terminal half of secondaries, rump and upper tail-coverts pure white; 
under parts, from lower neck to tail, pure white, sometimes washed with yellowish or 
orange on the belly; tail entirely black, or a few of the outer feathers white-tipped; bill 
blackish or horn-colored; iris brown. 
Adult female: Similar to male, but usually with a narrow belt of clear black between. 
the red throat and white breast, and the inner secondaries always more or less barred or 
spotted with black. 
Young: Without any red, or only a few feathers, on head and neck, these parts brownish 
eray, thickly spotted or mottled with blackish, and breast and sides streaked with the 
same; rump and tail as in old birds; all the secondaries white, barred or spotted with black. 
Length 9.25 to 9.75 inches; wing 5.30 to 5.70; tail 3.60 to 3.75; culmen .90 to 1.15. 
171. Red-bellied Woodpecker. Centurus carolinus (Linn.). (409) 
Synonyms: Zebra Bird, Zebra-back.—Picus carolinus, Linn., 1758, Wils., Aud. and 
others.—Centurus carolinensis, Swains., 1837, and most subsequent authors. 
Figure 91. 
Our only woodpecker which shows any red on the belly, but often this 
is a mere tinge, by no means conspicuous. On the other hand, the beauti- 
fully cross-barred black and white back and wings are very conspicuous 
and render the bird unmistakable. 
Distribution.—Eastern and southern United States, north casually to 
Massachusetts, New York, Ontario, southern Michigan, and central Iowa; 
west to eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, Indian Territory and Texas. 
The distribution of this bird in Michigan is of much interest. It seems 
to be nowhere abundant, but is more frequently met with in the southern 
half of the state, where, although not 
common, it cannot be considered par- 
ticularly rare. It is reported as a regular 
migrant in almost every county in the 
southern part of the state, as far north at 
least as the Saginaw Valley, although it 
seems to be rather more abundant on the 
west side of the state than in the east. 
B. H. Swales does not include it in his 
list of the birds of St. Clair county (MSS.), 
but Hazelwood finds it, though rarely, at Fig. 91. Red-bellied Woodpecker. 
Port Huron. P. A. Taverner says it is very From Bailey’s Handbook of Birds of the 
rare about Detroit, has found it but once, Wt U.S. Houghton, Mifftin & Co. 
