398 - -‘BIRDS—PICID A. 
SPHYRAPICUS VARIUS (L.) Baird. 
“Y ellow=bellied W oodpecker. 
Picus varius, WILSON, Am. Orn., i, 1808, 147.—KirRTLaND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 162, 
179.—READ, Proce. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., vi, 1853, 395. 
Sphyrapicus varius, KIRKPATRICK, Ohio Farmer, ix, 1860, 307.—WHEATON, Ohio Agric. 
Rep. for 1860, 1861, 362; Reprint, 4; Food of Birds, ete., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 
1875, 569; Reprint, 9—LANGpDoN, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 11; Revised List, Journ. 
Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 178; Reprint, 12. 
Sphyropicus varius, var. varius, BAIRD, BREWER and Ripeway, N. A. Birds, ii, 1874, 540. 
Picus varius, LINNZUS, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 176. 
Sphyrapicus varius, BAIRD, Birds N. A. 1858, 103. 
Crown crimson, bordered all around with black; chin, throat and breasi black, en- 
closing a large crimson patch on the former in the male, in the female this patch white ; 
sides of head with a line starting from the nasal feathers and dividing the black of the 
throat from a trans-ocular black stripe, this separated from the black of crown by a 
white post-ocular stripe ; all these stripes frequently yellowish; under parts dingy yel- 
low, brownish, and with sagittate dusky marks on the sides; back variegated with 
black and yellowish- brown; wings black with large oblique white bar on the coverts, 
the quills with numerous paired white spots on the edge of both webs; tail black, most 
of the feathers white edged, the inner webs of the middle pair and the upper coverts, 
mostly white. Young birds lack the definite black areas of the head and breast, and 
the crimson throat patch, these parts being mottled gray. About, 84; wing, 44-5; 
tail, 34. 
Habitat, the typical form in Eastern North Ameriea north to 64° at least. South to 
Guatemala. Mexico. Cuba. Bahamas. Greenland. Var. nuchalis from the Rocky 
- Mountain region and Great Basin. Var. ruber from Cascade Mountains and Sierra 
Nevada to the Pacific. 
Common spring and fall migrant in March, April, October, and Novem- 
ber. Mr. Langdon gives it as a not common winter visitor in the 
vicinity of Cincinnati. | 
The Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, one of the most singular and attrac- 
tive members of the family, is a regular migrant in spring and fall, and 
while it never occurs in great numbers in this vicinity it may frequently 
be seen in small companies of five or six in mixed woodland. The indi- 
viduals of these little companies pay but little regard to each other, and 
their association may for the most part be purely accidental. They are 
the most silent of all our Woodpeckers, though not at all suspicious or 
shy. When not in a hurry, they visit our orchards and gardens, search- 
ing for insects in the crevices of bark. The ornamental evergreens of 
cities, especially pine trees, are favorite resorts, and I suspect they have 
a preference for pine woods, as on their arrival they are frequently soiled 
by gum from these trees. 
This is the only Woodpecker to which the term “Sapsucker” can 
