308 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



bitant of the fur-countries up to the fifty-eighth parallel. It seeks its food prin- 

 cipally on the maple, elm, and ash, and, north of latitude 54°, where these trees 

 terminate, on the aspen and birch. Its researches are made mostly, if not wholly, 

 on live trees ; and it encircles their trunks by spiral or horizontal rows of small, 

 round holes, similar to those drilled by a gimlet, and just penetrating the bark. 

 When engaged in this work, its attention is so much occupied, that it may be 

 approached very closely. As soon as it does observe any one near it, it utters 

 a shrill cry, and flies to another tree, on which it instantly resumes its labour as 

 if the cause of its alarm were totally forgotten. It excavates its nest in the limb 

 of a tree ; and Wilson informs us that, to avoid betraying its situation, it carries 

 the chips to a distance. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a male, killed on the Saskatchewan in the spring of 1827. 



Colour. — -Top and sides of the head and the nape velvet-black ; the hind head crossed 

 by an arterial blood-red band. Ground of the dorsal plumage, wings, and two middle pairs 

 of tail feathers, pitch-black ; scapulars, upper wing coverts, and tail coverts, unspotted. 

 Nasal feathers, a broad superciliary stripe, terminating at the red band, a line from the 

 rictus, crossing the ears to a large round patch on the sides of the nape, middle of the back 

 anteriorly, ends of the downy feathers on the hinder part of the back, a large central spot 

 on a few of the intermediate wing coverts, a smaller one on the outer web of each of the 

 greater coverts, the extreme tips of most of the quills, a series of marginal spots on both 



recollect that it is only within the last few years that several of the birds of Europe have been discovered to be new 

 and peculiar species, overlooked by former writers, and that discoveries of this kind are occurring every year, even in 

 our own island, it need not excite any great surprise that the forests of North America are not yet exhausted. 



Ch. Sp. Picus (Dendrocopus) medianus, albo nigroque varius, vertice nigro occipite rubro ambobus albo macu- 



latis ; remige secundo septimum longe superanti. 

 Sp. Ch. Little Midland Woodpecker, varied with black and white ; crown black, hind head red, both spotted 



with white; second quill feather much longer than the seventh. 

 Obs. Lateral tail feathers narrowed and pointed at the end ; the shafts narrow, gradually pointed, and reaching to 



the apex of the feathers. 

 Inhabits the middle parts of North America. Not uncommon in New Jersey. Closely resembles the pubescens in 



size and general appearance. The female differs merely in having the upper part of the head entirely black. 



Ch. Sp. Picus (Dendrocopus) meridionalis, albo nigroque varius, subtus griseus, vertice nigro, occipite late rubro 



fasciato ,• remige secundo et octavo cequalibus. 

 Sp. Ch. Little Georgian Woodpecker, varied with black and white, beneath grey, crown black, a broad red 



band on the hind head ; second quill feather equal to the eighth. 

 Obs. Smaller than P. pubescens, which it resembles in general appearance, in the structure of the shafts, and rounded 



form of the tail feathers ; the under plumage, however, is hair-brown (as dark, but not so yellow, as that of 



Picus major), instead of white, or whitish, as in P. pubescens: the red band is much broader, and the relative 



lengths of the quills are different. 

 Inhabits Georgia. As we have as yet seen but two specimens of this, we consider its specific claims require further 



confirmation. — Sw. 



