RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 
271 
of the United States schooner Spark, as well as my assistants, always 
spoke of it by the name of chaw-chaw. Perhaps it partly obtained this 
name from the numbers of it cooked by the crew in the same manner as the 
dish known to sailors by the same name. It is, however, less common in 
the United States than the Hairy Woodpecker; but its range is as extensive, 
for I have found it from the Texas to the extremities of the British provinces 
of Nova Scotia, and as far inland as I have travelled. It appears, however, 
that it does not inhabit the Fur Countries, as no mention is made of it by 
Dr. Richardson, in the Fauna Boreali-Atne'ricana. It is generally more 
confined to the interior of the forests, especially during the time of its 
breeding, than the Hairy Woodpecker, although in winter I have found it 
quite as easily approached. In autumn it frequently occurs in the corn- 
fields, where it takes its share of the grain, in common with the Hairy, the 
Downy, and other Woodpeckers. It is a lively and active bird, fond of 
rolling its tappings against the decayed top-branches of trees, often launch- 
ing forth after passing insects, and feeding during winter on all such berries 
as it can procure. Its flight is strong and better sustained than that of 
the Yellow-bellied or Hairy Woodpeckers, and,' like the Golden-winged 
species, it not unfrequently alights across the smaller branches of the trees, 
a habit which, I assure you, is oftener exhibited than has been supposed, 
by all our species of this interesting tribe of birds. 
I never found its nest in Louisiana or South Carolina ; but it is not 
ancommon to meet with it in Kentucky; and from Maryland to Nova 
Scotia these birds breed in all convenient places, usually more in the woods 
than out of them, although I have found their nests in orchards in Pennsyl- 
vania, generally not far from the junction of a branch with the trunk. The 
hole is bored in the ordinary manner. The eggs are seldom more than four 
in number ; they measure one inch and half an eighth in length, three- 
fourths of an inch in breadth, are of-an elliptical form, smooth, pure white, 
and translucent. In so far as I have been able to discover, this species 
produces only one brood in a season. The young remain in or about the 
nest until able to fly well. 
The difference which this species exhibits in the sound of its notes has 
always been a matter of interest to me ; they fall upon the ear as if the bird 
were suffering from a severe catarrh, and yet may be heard at times at the 
distance of a hundred yards. They resemble the syllable chow or chaw, 
quickly repeated during its movements, sometimes singly, but more usually 
doubled. 
It feeds on all sorts of insects and larvae which it can procure, and at 
certain periods its flesh is strongly impregnated with the odour of its food. 
When procured in any part of the woods that have been burnt, the feathers 
