146 
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. — PICUS ERYTHROCE- 
PHALUS Plate IX. Fig. 1. 
Picus erythrocephalus, Linn . Syst. i. 174, 7 Gmel. Syst. i. 429 Pic noir a 
domino rouge, Buff on , vii. 55. PL enl. 117. — Catesby, i. 20 Arct. Zool. ii. 
No. 160 Lath . Syn. ii. 561. — Peale's Museum , No. 1922. 
MELANERPES ERYTHROCEPHALUS. — Swainson.* 
Picus erythrocephalus, Bonap. Synop. p. 45. — Wagler Spec. av. Picus , No. 14. — The 
Red-headed Woodpecker, Aud. pi. 27.; Orn. Biog. i. p. 141. — Melanerpes 
erythrocephalus, North. Zool. ii. p. 316. 
There is perhaps no bird in North America more universally 
known than this. His tricoloured plumage, red, white, and 
black, glossed with steel blue, is so striking and characteristic, 
and his predatory habits in the orchards and cornfields, added 
to his numbers, and fondness for hovering along the fences, so 
very notorious, that almost every child is acquainted with the 
Red-headed Woodpecker. In the immediate neighbourhood 
of our large cities, where the old timber is chiefly cut down, 
he is not so frequently found ; and yet, at this present time, 
(June, 1808,) I know T of several of their nests within the 
boundaries of the city of Philadelphia. Two of these are in 
button-wood trees ( Platanus occidentalism ) and another in the 
decayed limb of an elm. The old ones, I observe, make 
their excursions regularly to the woods beyond the Schuylkill, 
about a mile distant ; preserving great silence and circum- 
* This will point out another of Mr Swainson’s groups among the Wood- 
peckers, equally distinct with Colaptes. The form is long and swallow like ; 
the bill more rounded than angular, the culmen quite round ; the wings nearly jl 
as long as the tail. In their manners, they are extremely familiar ; and during 
summer, feed almost entirely on the rich fruits and ripe grains of the country. 
The chaste and simple coloured Picus bicolor, from the Mims Geraies, I 
believe, will be another representative of this form Ed. 
