RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 399 
with any propriety beapplied. It lacks the long extensile tongue which 
enables the other Woodpeckers to probe the winding galleries of wood- 
eating larve, and is known to feed largely upon the green inner bark of 
trees. In some localities it is said to destroy many trees by stripping off 
the bark. In this locality its numbers are never so great as to prove 
destructive, on the other hand, its visits are of great benefit to our gar- 
dens and orchards. It destroys great numbers of pupe of Avgerians, 
which inhabit our maple, peach and pear trees, as well as currant-bush 
borers, and coddling moths of our apple trees. 
No one seems to have discovered for what purpose the tongue of birds 
of this genus differs so greatly from those ef other members of the family, 
and the suggestion offers that their food is not obtained from the interior 
of trees, but from the bark and small pithy branches. 
The breeding range of this bird is not clearly made out. The older 
writers gave it as breeding where it is now recognized as migrant only. 
Perhaps it breeds in Northern Ohio; I once observed a pair digging an 
excavation about fifty feet from the ground in a tall ash on the edge of 
woods, in May. This they deserted, however, before it was completed. 
They are known to breed from Northern New York, northward. The 
nest is described as high up in some dead tree, and the eggs as pure 
white, measuring .95 by .70. 
GENUS CENTURUS. Swainson. 
Bill with lateral ridges not extending to tip or commissure. Nostrils very broadly 
oval, Posterior outer toe shorter than anterior outer. 
CENTURUS CAROLINUS (L.) Sw. 
Red-bellied Woodpecker. 
Picus carolinus, WILSON, Am. Orn., i, 1808, 113.—KirTLaNnp, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 
162.—READ, Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat, Sci., vi, 1853, 395. 
Centurus carolinus, KIRKPATRICK, Ohio Farmer, ix, 1860, 331.—WuHEATON, Ohio Agric. 
Rep. for 1860, 1861, 362; Reprint, 4; Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 
1875, 569; Reprint, 9—LANGDON, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 11; Revised List, Journ. 
Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 178; Reprint, 12. 
Red-bellied Woodpecker, BALLOU, Field and Forest, iii, 1578, 136. 
Picus carolinus, LINNZUS, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 174. 
Centurus carolinus, SWAINSON, Class B., ii, 1837, 310.. 
Back and wings, except larger quills, closely banded with black and white ; primaries 
with large white blotches near the base, and usually a few smaller spots. Whole 
crown and nape scarlet in the male, partly so in the female; sides of head and under 
parts grayish-white, usualiy with a yellow shade, reddening on belly; flanks and cris- 
sum with sagittate-black marks; tail black, one or two outer feathers white barred ; 
