164 RED=COCKADED WOODPECKER. 
RED-COCKADED WOODPECKER.—PICUS QUERULUS. — 
: Fic. 64. 
Peale’s Museum, No. 2027. 
DENDROCOPUS QUERULUS. —Kocn. 
Picus querulus, Bonap. Synop. p. 46. 
Tuts new species [ first discovered in the pine woods of North 
Carolina. The singularity of its voice, which greatly resembles the 
chirping of young nestlings, and the red streak on the side of its head, 
suggested the specific name I have given it. It also extends through 
South Carolina and Georgia, at least as far as the Altamaha River. 
Observing the first specimen I found to be so slightly marked with 
red, I suspected it to be a young bird, or imperfect in its plumage; 
but the great numbers [ afterwards shot, satisfied me that this is a 
peculiarity of the species. It appeared exceedingly restless, active, 
and-clamorous; and every where I found its manners the same. —_. 
This bird seems to be an intermediate link between the Red-bellied 
and the Hairy Woodpecker, represented in Nos. 26 and 37. It has 
the back of the former, and the white belly and spotted neck of the 
latter; but wants the breadth of red in both, and is less than either. 
A preserved specimen has been deposited in the Museum of Phila- 
delphia. ie ee st 
This Woodpecker is seven inches and a half long, and thirteen 
broad; the upper part of the head is black; the back barred with 
twelve white transversely semicircular lines, and as many of black, 
alternately ; the cheeks and sides of the neck are white ; whole lower 
parts, the same; from the lower mandible, a list of black passes towards 
the shoulder of the wing, where it is lost in small black spots on each 
side of the breast; the wings are black, spotted with white; the 
four middle tail-feathers, black; the rest white, spotted with black ; 
rump, black, variegated with white; the vent, white, spotted with 
black; the hairs that cover the nostrils are of-a pale cream color; the 
bill, deép slate. But what forms the most distinguishing peculiarity 
of this bird, is a fine line of vermilion on each side of the head, sel- 
dom occupying more than the edge of a single feather. The female 
is destitute of this ornament; but, in the rest of her plumage, differs. 
in nothing from the male. The iris of the eye, in both, was hazel. 
_ The stomachs of all those I opened were filled with small black 
insects and fragments of large beetles. The posterior extremities o 
the tongue reached near y to the base of the upper mandible. ; 
