148 



YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 



small angle and then rounding downwards about fifteen inches. 

 On the smooth solid wood lay four white eggs. This was about 

 the twenty-fifth of May. Having no opportunity of visiting it 

 afterwards I cannot say whether it added any more eggs to the 

 number; I rather think it did not, as it appeared at that time to 

 be sitting. 



The Yellow-bellied Woodpecker is eight inches and a half 

 long, and in extent fifteen inches , whole crown a rich and deep 

 scarlet, bordered with black on each side, and behind forming a 

 slight crest, which it frequently erects;^ from the nostrils, which 

 are thickly covered with recumbent hairs, a narrow strip of white 

 runs downward, curving round the breast, mixing with the yel- 

 lowish white on the lower part of the breast; throat the same deep 

 scarlet as the crown, bordered with black, proceeding from the 

 lower mandible on each side, and spreading into a broad rounding 

 patch on the breast; this black, in birds of the first and second 

 year, is dusky grey, the feathers being only crossed with circular 

 touches of black; a line of white, and below it another of black, 

 proceed, the first from the upper part of the eye, the other from 

 the posterior half of the eye, and both lose themselves on the neck 

 and back; back dusky yellow, sprinkled and elegantly waved with 

 black; wings black, with a large oblong spot of white; the pri- 

 maries tipt and spotted with white ; the three secondaries next the 

 body are also variegated with white ; rump white, bordered with 

 black; belly yellow; sides under the wings more dusky yellow, 

 marked with long arrow-heads of black; legs and feet greenish 

 blue ; tail black, consisting of ten feathers, the two outward fea- 

 thers on each side tipt with white, the next totally black, the fourth 

 edged on its inner vane half way down with white, the middle one 

 white on its interior vane, and spotted with black; tongue flat, 

 horny for half an inch at the tip, pointed, and armed along its sides 



* This circumstance seems to bave been overlooked by naturalists. 



