4S 



GOLD- WINGED WOODPECKER. 

 PICUS AUEATUS. 

 [PI. III.— Fig. 1.] 



Le Pic aux ailes dorees, De Buffon VII, 39. PL enl, 693* — -Picus Auratus^ Linn. Syst. 

 174. — Cuculus alis deauratis^ Klein, p. 30. — Catesby I, 18. — Latham II, 597.—' 

 Bartram, p, 289. — Pe ale's Museum, No, 1938. 



THIS elegant bird is well known to our farmers and junior 

 sportsmen, who take every opportunity of destroying him; the for- 

 mer for the supposed trespasses he commits on their Indian corn^ 

 or the trifle he will bring in market, and the latter for the mere 

 pleasure of destruction, and perhaps for the flavour of his fleshy 

 which is in general esteem. In the state of Pennsylvania he can 

 scarcely be called a bird of passage, as even in severe winters they 

 may be found within a few miles of the city of Philadelphia ; and 

 I have known them exposed for sale in market every week during 

 the months of November, December and January, and that too in 

 more than commonly rigorous weather. They, no doubt, however, 

 partially migrate, even here ; being much more numerous in spring 

 and fall than in winter. Early in the month of April they begin 

 to prepare their nest, whicli is built in the hollow body or branch 

 of a tree, sometimes, tho not always, at a considerable height from 

 the ground; for I have frequently known them fix on the trunk of 

 an old apple tree, at not more than six feet from the root. The 

 sagacity of this bird in discovering under a sound bark, a hollow 

 limb or trunk of a tree, and its perseverance in perforating it for 

 the purpose of incubation, are truly surprising; the male and female 

 alternately relieving and encouraging each other by mutual caresses, 

 renewing their labours for several days till the object is attained, 



N 



