I4 6 RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 



and eggs of this bird, were precisely ascertained, which would 

 enable us to determine whether it be, what I strongly sus- 

 pect it is, the same species as the common domestic wren of 

 Britain* 



EED-HEADED WOODPECKER. (Pious erythro- 

 cephalus.) 



PLATE IX.— Fig. 1. 



Picus erythrocephalus, Linn. Syst. i. 174, 7. — Gmel. Syst. i. 429. — Pic noir k domino 

 rouge, Buffon, vii. 55. PI. enl. 117.— Catesby, i. 20.— Arct. Zool. ii. No. 160. 

 — Lath. Syn. ii. 561.— Peak's Museum, No. 1922. 



MELANERPES ER YTHR CEPEA L US. — S wainson. f 



Picus erythrocephalus, Bonap. Synop. p. 45. — Wagl. Spec. Av. Picus, No. 14. — 

 The Red-headed "Woodpecker, Aud. pi. 27, Orn. Biog. i. p. 141.— Melanerpes 

 erythrocephalus, North. Zool. ii. p. 316. 



There is perhaps no bird in North America more universally 

 known than this. His tricoloured plumage, red, white, and 



* There is a very great alliance between the British and American 

 specimens ; and all authors who have described this bird and that of 

 Europe, have done so with uncertainty. Wilson evidently had a doubt, 

 both from what he says, and from marking the species and his synonyms 

 with a query. "Vieillot had doubts, and Bonaparte goes a good deal 

 on his authority, but points out no difference between the birds. Mr 

 S wainson, in the " Northern Zoology," has described a bird as that of 

 Vieillot's, killed on the shores of Lake Huron, and proves distinctly that 

 the plumage and some of the relative proportions vary. It is likely 

 that there are two American species concerned in this, — one northern, 

 another extending to the south, and that one, perhaps, may be identical 

 with that of Europe : one certainly seems distinct. I have retained 

 hyemalis with a mark of doubt, it being impossible to determine those 

 so closely allied without an examination of numerous species. — Ed. 



t This will point out another of Mr Swainson's groups among the 

 woodpeckers, equally distinct with Colaptes. The form is long and 

 swallow-like ; the bill more rounded than angular, the culmen quite 

 round ; the wings nearly as long as the tail. In their manners, they 

 are extremely familiar ; and during summer, feed almost entirely on the 

 rich fruits and ripe grains of the country. The chaste and simple 

 coloured Picus bicolor, from the Minas Geraies, I believe, will be another 

 representative of this form. — Ed. 



