114 RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 



has often reminded me of the barking of a little lapdog. It 

 is a most expert climber, possessing extraordinary strength in 

 the muscles of its feet and claws, and moves about the body 

 and horizontal limbs of the trees with equal facility in all 

 directions. It rattles like the rest of the tribe on the dead 

 limbs, and with such violence as to be heard, in still weather, 

 more than half a mile off, and listens to hear the insects it 

 has alarmed. In the lower side of some lofty branch that 

 makes a considerable angle with the horizon, the male and 

 female, in conjunction, dig out a circular cavity for their 

 nest, sometimes out of the solid wood, but more generally 

 into a hollow limb, twelve or fifteen inches above where it 

 becomes solid. This is usually performed early in April. 

 The female lays five eggs of a pure white, or almost semi- 

 transparent ; and the young generally make their appearance 

 towards the latter end of May or beginning of June, climb- 

 ing up to the higher parts of the tree, being as yet unable 

 to fly. In this situation they are fed for several days, and 

 often become the prey of the hawks. From seeing the old 

 ones continuing their caresses after this period, I believe that 

 they often, and perhaps always, produce two broods in a 

 season. During the greatest part of the summer, the young 

 have the ridge of the neck and head of a dull brownish ash ; 

 and a male of the third year has received his complete 

 colours. 



The red-bellied woodpecker is ten inches in length and 

 seventeen in extent ; the bill is nearly an inch and a half in 

 length, wedged at the point, but not quite so much grooved 

 as some others, strong, and of a bluish black colour ; the 

 nostrils are placed in one of these grooves, and covered with 

 curving tufts of light brown hairs, ending in black points ; 

 the feathers on the front stand more erect than usual, and 

 are of a dull yellowish red ; from thence, along the whole 

 upper part of the head and neck, down the back, and spread- 

 ing round to the shoulders, is of the most brilliant golden 

 glossy red; the whole cheeks, line over the eye, and under 



