270 RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 



the head with blue reflections, the back and wings tinged with brown. The 

 tufts over the nostrils are dull yellow; the anterior part of the head pale 

 yellow, spotted with white; a band of white, with small dusky lines, passes 

 from the angle of the mouth to the occiput; the back is transversely banded 

 with white; the quills are brownish-black, spotted and tipped with white, 

 the four longest primaries with seven spots on the outer, and five on the 

 inner web, on most of the secondaries five on each web. The four middle 

 tail-feathers are black, the next black, largely tipped with white, the rest 

 white, but except the outer small feathers, with a black band at the base. 

 The lower parts are white, excepting the sides, and lower wing-coverts, 

 which are banded with black. 



Length to end of tail 9 inches; bill along the ridge 1, along the edge of 

 lower mandible 1 i%; wing from flexure 4 T 5 2-; tail 3-|; tarsus ff ; second toe 

 T %, its claw f| ; third toe T 7 2, its claw ■{%', fourth toe ff , its claw T 6 2- 



Adult Female. 



The female, which is somewhat smaller, differs from the male in wanting 

 the yellow patch on the head, the whole of that part being black, with small 

 white spots. 



RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 



-i Picus cAROLiNus, Linn. 



PLATE CCLXX Male and Female. 



Much of what I have said respecting the habits of several of our Spotted 

 Woodpeckers applies to the present species, which differs, however, in the 

 greater extent of its migration in the spring and summer months, when the 

 greater number of those which return from the south to our Middle and 

 Eastern Districts proceed considerably farther northward than the Hairy 

 Woodpecker, although not so far as the Canadian. In winter I have found 

 the Red-bellied Woodpecker the most abundant of all in the pine barrens of 

 the Floridas, and especially on the plantations bordering the St. John's river, 

 where on any day it would have been easy to procure half a hundred. 

 Indeed, on this account, and from its well-known notes, the officers and men 



