RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 
149 
the only species of woodpecker that winters near 
Hudson’s Bay.” The natives there call it Ou-thee- 
quan-nor-ow, from the golden colour of the shafts and 
under side feathers of the wings. Jt has numerous 
provincial appellations in the different states of the 
Union, such as “ High-hole,” from the situation of its 
nest, and “ Hittock,” “ Yucker,” “ Pint,” c - Flicker,” by 
which last it is usually known in Pennsylvania. These 
names have probably originated from a fancied resem- 
blance of its notes to the sound of the words ; for one 
of its most common cries consists of two notes, or 
syllables, frequently repeated, which, by the help of the 
hearer’s imagination, may easily be made to resemble 
any or all of them. 
41 . PIC US ERYTHROCEPHALUS, LINNiEUS. RED-HEADED 
WOODPECKER. 
WILSON, PLATE IX. FIG. I EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
There is perhaps no bird in North America more 
universally known than this. His tri-coloured 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 wo.odpecker. In the immediate neigh- 
bourhood 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 of several 
of their nests within the boundaries of the city of Phila- 
delpma. Two of these are in button-wood trees (pla- 
tanus occidentalism ) and another in the decayed limb 
of a large elm. The old ones, I observe, make their 
excursions regularly to the woods beyond the Schuylkill, 
about a mile distant ; preserving great silence and 
circumspection in visiting their nests, — precautions not 
much attended to by them in the depth of the woods. 
