SPECIES 5. FICUS VJiRIUS, 
YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 
[Plate IX. — Fig. 2.] 
Ficus vctrius, Linn. Syst. i, 176, 20. — Gmel. Syst. i, 438. — -Le 
pic varie de la Caroline, Buff, vii, 77. PL Enl. 785. — Yellow- 
bellied Woodpecker, Catesb. i, 21. — ,drct. Zool. ii, tJVb. 166. — 
Lath. Syn. ii, 574, 20. Id. Sup. p. 109. — Peale’s ilfitsemw, JVo. 
2004. 
This beautiful species is one of our resident birds. It visits 
our orchards in the month of October, in great numbers; is oc- 
casionally seen during the whole winter and spring; but seems 
to seek the depths of the forest, to rear its young in; for during 
summer, it is rarely seen among our settlements; and even in 
the intermediate woods, I have seldom met with it in that sea- 
son. According to Brisson, it inhabits the continent from Cay- 
enne to Virginia; and I may add, as far as to Hudson’s Bay; 
where according to Hutchins, they are called Mekiseioe Pau- 
pastaow;* they are also common in the states of Kentucky and 
Ohio, and have been seen in the neighhourhood of St. Louis. 
They are reckoned by Georgi, among the birds that frequent 
the lake Baikal, in Asia,t hut 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 in 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 almost exactly circular, small for the size of the bird, 
so that it crept in and out with difficulty, but suddenly widen- 
* Latham. 
f Ibid. 
