RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 271 



of the United States' schooner Spark, as well as my assistants, always 

 spoke of it by the name of chaw-chaw. Perhaps it partly obtained this 

 name from the numbers of it cooked by the crew in the same manner as the 

 dish known to sailors by the same name. It is, however, less common in 

 the United States than the Hairy Woodpecker; but its range is as extensive, 

 for I have found it from the Texas to the extremities of the British provinces 

 of Nova Scotia, and as far inland as I have travelled. It appears, however, 

 that it does not inhabit the Fur Countries, as no mention is made of it by 

 Dr. Richardson, in the Fauna Boreali-Americana. It is generally more 

 confined to the interior of the forests, especially during the time of its 

 breeding, than the Hairy Woodpecker, although in winter I have found it 

 quite as easily approached. In autumn it frequently occurs in the corn- 

 fields, where it takes its share of the grain, in common with the Hairy, the 

 Downy, and other Woodpeckers. It is a lively and active bird, fond of 

 rolling its tappings against the decayed top-branches of trees, often launching 

 forth after passing insects, and feeding during winter on all such berries as 

 it can procure. Its flight is strong and better sustained than that of the 

 Yellow-bellied or Hairy Woodpeckers, and, like the Golden-winged species, 

 it not unfrequently alights across the smaller branches of the trees, a habit 

 which, I assure you, is oftener exhibited than has been supposed, by all our 

 species of this interesting tribe of birds. 



I never found its nest in Louisiana or South Carolina; but it is not 

 uncommon to meet with it in Kentucky; and from Maryland to Nova 

 Scotia these birds breed in all convenient places, usually more in the woods 

 than out of them, although I have found their nests in orchards in Pennsyl- 

 vania, generally not far from the junction of a branch with the trunk. The 

 hole is bored in the ordinary manner. The eggs are seldom more than four 

 in number; they measure one inch and half an eighth in length, three-fourths 

 of an inch in breadth, are of an elliptical form, smooth, pure white, and 

 translucent. In so far as I have been able to discover, this species produces 

 only one brood in a season. The young remain in or about the nest until 

 able to fly well. 



The difference which this species exhibits in the sound of its notes has 

 always been a matter of interest to me; they fall upon the ear as if the bird 

 were suffering from a severe catarrh, and yet may be heard at times at the 

 distance of a hundred yards. They resemble the syllable chow or chaw, 

 quickly repeated during its movements, sometimes singly, but more usually 

 doubled. 



It feeds on all sorts of insects and larvae which it can procure, and at 

 certain periods its flesh is strongly impregnated with the odour of its food. 

 When procured in any part of the woods that have been burnt, the feathers 



