Il6 RED -BELLIED WOODPECKER. 



to the back, likewise of the same rich red as his. In the bird 

 from which this latter description was taken I found a large 

 cluster of minute eggs, to the number of fifty or upwards, in 

 the beginning of the month of March. 



This species inhabits a large extent of country, in all of 

 which it seems to be resident, or nearly so. I found them 

 abundant in Upper Canada, and in the northern parts of the 

 State of New York, in the month of November; they also 

 inhabit the whole Atlantic States as far as Georgia, and the 

 southern extremity of Florida, as well as the interior parts of 

 the United States, as far west as Chilicothe, in the State of 

 Ohio, and, according to BufFon, Louisiana. They are said 

 to be the only woodpeckers found in Jamaica ; though I 

 question whether this be correct ; and to be extremely fond 

 of the capsicum or Indian pepper.* They are certainly much 

 hardier birds, and capable of subsisting on coarser and more 

 various fare, and of sustaining a greater degree of cold, than 

 several other of our woodpeckers. They are active and 

 vigorous ; and, being almost continually in search of insects 

 that injure our forest trees, do not seem to deserve the 

 injurious epithets that almost all writers have given them. 

 It is true they frequently perforate the timber in pursuit of 

 these vermin ; but this is almost always in dead and decay- 

 ing parts of the tree, which are the nests and nurseries of 

 millions of destructive insects. Considering matters in this 

 light, I do not think their services overpaid by all the ears of 

 Indian-corn they consume ; and would protect them, within 

 my own premises, as being more useful than injurious. 



* Sloane. 



