152 
YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 
YELLOW-BELLIED. WOODPECKER. — PICUS YARIUS. 
Plate IX. Fig. 2. 
Picus varius, Linn . Syst. i. 176, 20. — Gmel. Syst. i. 735. — Le pic varie de la Caro- 
line, Buff. vii. 77. PL ml. 785 Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Catesb. i. 21. — 
Arct. Zool. ii. No. 166. — Lath. Syn. ii. 574, 20. Id. Sup. p. 109. — Peak's 
Museum, No. 2004. 
DENDROCOPUS VAlil US. — Swainson.* 
Picus varius, Bonap. Synop. p. 45. — Wagl. Syst. Av. Picus, No. 16. — Dendro- 
copus varius, North. Zool. ii. p. 309. 
This beautiful species is one of our resident birds. It visits 
our orchards in the month of October in great numbers, is 
occasionally 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 
* In this species and the two following, the little Woodpecker of this 
country, and many others, we have the types of a sub-genus ( Dendrocopus , 
Koch) among the Woodpeckers, which I have no hesitation in adopting, 
as containing a very marked group of black and white spotted birds, allied 
to confusion with each other. The genus is made use of for the first time, in 
a British publication, the Northern Zoology, by Mr Swainson, as the third sub- 1 
genus of Picus. He thus remarks : — 
“ The third sub-genus comprehends all the smaller black and white spotted 
Woodpeckers of Europe and America. Some few occur in the mountainous 
parts of India ; but, with these exceptions, the group, which is very extensive, 
seems to belong more particularly to temperate latitudes.” 
“ It was met with by the overland expedition in flocks, on the banks of the 
Saskatchewon, in May. Its manners, at that period of the year, were strikingly 
contrasted with those of the resident Woodpeckers ; for, instead of flitting in 
a solitary way, from tree to tree, and assiduously boring for insects, it flew 
about in crowded flocks, in a restless manner, and kept up a continual 
chattering. Its geographical range is extensive ; from the sixty-first parallel of 
latitude, to Mexico.” 
Mr Swainson mentions having received a single specimen of a Woodpecker j 
from Georgia, closely allied to this, which he suspects to be undescribed ; and, 
in the event of being correct, he proposes to dedicate it to Mr Audubon, — 
Dendrocopus Audubonii, Sw. — Ed. 
