158 
PICUS VARIUS. 
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 after- 
wards 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 black, proceed, the first from 
the upper part of the eye, the other from the posterior 
half of the eye, and both lose themselves on the neck 
and back ; back, dusky yellow, sprinkled and elegantly 
waved with black ; wings, black, with a large oblong 
spot of white ; the primaries, tipt and spotted with 
white ; the three secondaries next the body are also 
variegated with white ; rump, white, bordered with 
black ; belly, yellow ; sides under the wings, more dusky 
yellow, marked with long arrow-heads of black ; legs 
and feet, greenish blue ; tail, black, consisting of ten 
feathers, the two outward feathers on each side tipt 
with white, the next totally black, the fourth edged on 
its inner vane half way down with white, the middle 
one white on its interior vane, and spotted with black ; 
tongue, flat, horny for half an inch at the tip, pointed, 
and armed along its sides with reflected barbs ; the 
other extremities of the tongue pass up behind the 
* This circumstance seems to have been overlooked by naturalists. 
