i;47 



YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 

 PICUS VARIUS, 

 [Plate IX.— Fig. 2.] 



Picus varius, Linn. Syst. I, 176, 20. — Gmel. Syst. I, 435. — Le pic varie de la Caroline^ 

 Buff. VII, 77. PL enl l^S.— Yellow-bellied TVoodpecker, Catesb. I, ^\.—Arct. Zool. II, 

 jVo. 166.-— Lath. Syn. II, 574, 20. Id. Sup. p. 109.— Pe ale's Museum, No. 2004. 



THIS beautiful species is one of our resident birds. It visits 

 our orchards in the month of October in great numbers, is occa- 

 sionally seen during the whole winter and spring; but seems to 

 seek the depths of the forest, to rear its young in ; for during sum- 

 mer it is rarely seen among our settlements; and even in the in- 

 termediate woods I have seldom met with it in that season. Ac- 

 cording to Brisson it inhabits the continent from Cayenne to Vir- 

 ginia; and I may add, as far as to Hudson's bay, where, accord- 

 ing to Hutchins, they are called Meksezve Paupastaozv they are 

 also common in the states of Kentucky and Ohio, and have been 

 seen in the neighbourhood of St. Louis. They are reckoned by 

 Georgi among the birds that frequent the lake Baikal, in Asia,t but 

 their existence there has not been satisfactorily ascertained. 



The habits of this species are similar to those of the Hairy 

 and Downy Woodpeckers, with which it generally associates ; and 

 which are both represented on the same plate. The only nest of 

 this bird which I have met with was in the body of an old pear 

 tree, about ten or eleven feet from the ground. The hole was al- 

 most exactly circular, small for the size of the bird, so that it crept 

 in and out with difficulty; but suddenly widened, descending by a 



* Latham. 



t Ibid, 



