YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 
153 
it in that season. According to Brisson, it inhabits the conti- 
nent from Cayenne to Virginia ; and I may add, as far as to 
Hudson’s Bay, where, according to Hutchins, they are called 
Meksewe Paupastaow ; # they are also common in the states of 
Kentucky and Ohio, and have been seen in the neighbourhood 
of St Louis. They are reckoned by Georgi among the birds 
that frequent the Lake Baikal, in Asia ; f but their existence 
there has not been satisfactorily ascertained. 
The habits of this species are similar to those of the Hairy 
and Downy Woodpeckers, with which it generally associates ; 
and which are both represented on the same plate. The only 
nest of this bird which I have met with, was in the body of an 
old pear tree, about ten or eleven feet from the ground. The 
hole was almost exactly circular, small for the size of the bird, 
so that it crept in and out with difficulty ; but suddenly 
widened, descending by a small angle, and then running 
downward about fifteen inches. On the smooth solid wood 
lay four white eggs. This was about the 25th of May. 
Having no opportunity of visiting it afterwards, I cannot say 
whether it added 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, proceeding 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 
* Latham. f Ibid. 
f This circumstance seems to have been overlooked by naturalists. 
