RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER 



115 



these when the edges of the two feathers just touch, coincide, and 

 form heart-shaped spots ; a narrow sword-shaped line of white runs 

 up the exterior side of the shafts of the same feathers; the next 

 four feathers on each side are black, the outer edges of the exterior 

 ones barred with black and white, which on the lower side seems to 

 cross the whole vane as in the figure; the extremities of the whole 

 tail, except the outer feather, are black, sometimes touched with 

 yellowish or cream color; the legs and feet are of a bluish green, 

 and the iris of the eye red. The tongue or os hybides passes up 

 over the hind head, and is attached by a very elastic retractile 

 membrane to the base of the right nostril; the extremity of the 

 tongue is long, horny, very pointed, and thickly edged with barbs, 

 the other part of the tongue is worm-shaped. In several specimens 

 I found the stomach nearly filled with pieces of a species of fungus, 

 that grows on decayed wood, and in all with great numbers of in- 

 sects, seeds, gravel, &c. &c. The female differs from the male in 

 having the crown, for an inch, of a fine ash, and the black not so 

 intense ; the front is reddish as in the male, and the whole hind 

 head down 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 Yew 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 Chi- 

 licothe in the state of Ohio, and, according to BufFon, Louisiana. 

 They are said to be the only Woodpeckers found in Jamaica; tho 

 I question whether this be correct ; and to be extremely fond of the 

 capsicum, or Indian pepper.^ They are certainly much hardier 



* Sloane. 



