264 THE YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 



They fly through the woods with rapidity, in short undulations, seldom 

 going farther at a time than from one tree to another. I never observed one 

 of these birds on the ground. Their food consists of wood-worms and 

 beetles, to which they add small grapes and various berries during autumn 

 and winter, frequently hanging head downwards at the extremity of a bunch 

 of grapes, or such berries as those you see represented in the Plate. 



I found this species extremely abundant in the upper parts of the State of 

 Maine, and in the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, but saw 

 none in Newfoundland or Labrador. 



While travelling I observed that they performed their migration by day, 

 in loose parties or families of six or seven individuals, flying at a great 

 height, and at the intervals between their sailings and the flappings of their 

 wings, emitting their remarkable plaintive cries. When alighting towards 

 sunset, they descended with amazing speed in a tortuous manner, and first 

 settled on the tops of the highest trees, where they remained perfectly 

 silent for awhile, after which they betook themselves to the central parts of 

 the thickest trees, and searched along the trunks for abandoned holes of 

 Squirrels or Woodpeckers, in which they spent the night, several together 

 in the same hole. On one occasion, while I was watching their movements 

 at a late hour, I was much surprised to see a pair of them disputing the 

 entrance of a hole with an Owl (Strix asio), which for nearly a quarter of 

 an hour tried, but in vain, to drive them away from its retreat. The Owl 

 alighted sidewise on the tree under its hole, swelled out its plumage, blew 

 and hissed with all its might; but the two Woodpeckers so guarded the 

 entrance with their sharp bills, their eyes flushed, and the feathers of their 

 heads erected, that the owner of the abode was at length forced to relinquish 

 his claims. The next day at noon I returned to the tree, when I found the 

 little nocturnal vagrant snugly ensconsed in his diurnal retreat. 



This species of Woodpecker does not obtain the full beauty of its plumage 

 until the second spring; and the variety of colouring which it presents in 

 the male and female, the old and young birds, renders it one of the most 

 interesting of those found in the United States. 



Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Picus varius, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. i. p. 147. 



Picus varids, Bonap. Syn., p. 45. 



Picus (Dendrocopus) varios, Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. 



Amer., vol. ii. p. 309. 

 Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 574. 

 Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Picus varius, Aud. Amer. Orn., vol. ii. p. 519; vol. v. 



p. 537. 



Male, 8|, 15. 



Breeds from Maryland northward to the Saskatchewan. Rather rare in 



