YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 
33 
ed, descending by a small angle, and then running downwards 
about fifteen inches. On the smooth solid wood lay four white 
eggs. This was about the twenty-fifth of May. Having no op- 
portunity of visiting it afterwards, I cannot say whether it ad- 
ded 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 yellowish white on the lower part of the breast; throat 
the same deep scarlet as the crown, bordered with black, pro- 
ceeding 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 gray, 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 primaries 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 feathers, 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 with reflected barbs; the other extremities of the tongue 
pass up behind the scull in a groove, and end near the right nos- 
* This circumstance seems to have been overlooked by naturalists. 
VOX. II. E 
