PICID.E. 



309 



their webs, the throat, and under tail coverts, all pure white, — the shafts of the latter black 

 near the tip. The rest of the under plumage pale ash-grey (in some specimens almost 

 white). Three lateral pairs of tail feathers white ; the two outer ones with two interrupted 

 black bars near the end ; inner web of the third one black to near the tip. Bill bluish- 

 black. Legs greenish. 



Form, perfectly typical. Fourth and fifth quill feathers the longest ; third and sixth 

 nearly equalling them ; second just exceeding the eighth, and considerably shorter than the 

 seventh. Tail graduated. — In some specimens there are a few white feathers on the frontlet. 

 The female wants the scarlet band, and her bill is rather shorter. 











Dimensions 





















Of the male. 

















Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 



agti 



i; total 



. 6 



6 



Length of bill to rictus 



. 



N>i 



Length of outer hind toe 







«i 



33 



of tail 



. 3 







„ of tarsus 







7 



,, of outer hind nail 



. 



3 



33 



of wing 



. 3 



10i 



„ of middle toe . 



. 



5 



,, of inner hind toe 







2 



33 



of bill above 







8" 



„ of middle nail 







3i 



,, of its nail 



. 



2 



Outermost tail feather but one of Dendrocopus pubescens. 



[103.] 4. Picus (Dendrocopus) varius. (Swainson.) Yellow-bellied 



Woodpecker . 



Genus, Picus, Linn. Sub-genus, Dendrocopus, Koch. 



Le Pic varie de la Caroline. Buff on, PL Enl. 785 ; young 



Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Penn. Arct. Zool, ii., p. 275, No. 1C6. Wils., i., p. 147, pL 9, f. 2. 



Picus varius. Vieii.. Ois. de V Am., ii., p. 63, pi. 118; and young, pi. 119. Sab. Fr. Journ., p. 677. 



Bonap. Syn., No. 41 : Orn., i., pi. 8, f. 1 and 2. Wagler, Sp. Av. Picus 16. 

 Meekesew-paupastuow. Cree Indians. 



This very gay Woodpecker is the only one that visits the fur-countries in 

 flocks ; for though the Colaptes auratus is also migratory, it arrives in a more 

 straggling manner, and immediately pairs. We observed the Yellow-bellied 

 Woodpecker, in 1825, on the north shore of Lake Huron, on the 14th of April ; 

 and, in 1827, it made its first appearance for the season, on the plains of the 



