264 
THE YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 
They fly through the woods with rapidity, in short undulations, seldom 
going farther at a time than from one tree to another. I never observed 
one of these birds on the ground. Their food consists of wood-worms and 
beetles, to which they add small grapes and various berries during autumn* 
and winter, frequently hanging head downwards at the extremity of a 
bunch of grapes, or such berries as those you see represented in the Plate. 
I found this species extremely abundant in the upper parts of the State 
of Maine, and in the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, but 
saw none in Newfoundland or Labrador. 
While travelling I observed that they performed their migration by day, 
in loose parties or families of six or seven individuals, flying at a great 
height, and at the intervals between their sailings and the flappings of their 
wings, emitting their remarkable plaintive cries. When alighting towards 
sunset, they descended with amazing speed in a tortuous manner, and first 
settled on the tops of the highest trees, where they remained perfectly 
silent for awhile, after which they betook themselves to the central parts of 
the thickest trees, and searched along the trunks for abandoned holes of 
Squirrels or Woodpeckers, in which they spent the night, several together 
in the same hole. On one occasion, while I was watching their movements 
at a late hour, I was much surprised to see a pair of them disputing the 
entrance of a hole with an Owl ( Strix asio), which for nearly a quarter of 
an hour tried, but in vain, to drive them away from its retreat. The Owl 
alighted sidewise on the tree under its hole, swelled out its plumage, blew 
and hissed with all its might; but the two Woodpeckers so guarded the 
entrance with their sharp bills, their eyes flushed, and the feathers of their 
heads erected, that the owner of the abode was at length forced to relin- 
quish his claims. The next day at noon I returned to the tree, when I 
found the little nocturnal vagrant snugly ensconsed in his diurnal retreat. 
This species of Woodpecker does not obtain the full beauty of its plumage 
until the second spring ; and the variety of colouring which it presents in 
the male and female, the old and young birds, renders it one of the most 
interesting of those found in the United States. 
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Pirns varius, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. i. p. 147. 
Picus varius, Bonap. Syn., p. 45. 
Picus (Dendrocopus) varius, Yellow-bellied Woodpecker , Swains, and Rich. F. 
Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 309. 
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 574. 
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Picus varius, Aud. Amer. Orn., vol. ii. p. 519; 
vol. v. p. 537. 
Male, 8|, 15 
Breeds from Maryland northward to the Saskatchewan. Rather rare in 
