Length 9½ inches, extent of wings 23½; bill along the back ¼, along the edge 1 1⁄12; tarsus ½.
Adult Female. Plate CXLVII. Fig. 2. 2.
The colouring of the Female is similar to that of the Male, but the dark parts of the former are browner, and the white parts more tinged with red; the white wing-spot smaller, the band on the throat brownish-white, and the white spots on the tail-feathers wanting.
Length 9.
The full-fledged young bird resembles the female.
The White Oak.
Quercus alba, Willd. Sp. Pl. p. 449. Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. vol. ii. p. 633. Mich. Arbr. Forest. vol. ii. p. 13. pl. 1.—Monœcia Polyandria, Linn. Amentaceæ, Juss.
Leaves oblong, pinnatifido-sinuate, downy beneath, their lobes oblong, obtuse; fruit rather large, with a cup-shaped tubercular cupule, and ovate acorn. The White Oak is abundant in most parts of the United States from Maine to Louisiana, and is one of the most useful trees of the genus, the wood being strong and lasting; and, as it is of large dimensions, it is employed for numerous purposes, especially ship building, and the manufacture of carriage-wheels, and domestic utensils. It attains a height of seventy or eighty feet, with a diameter of six or seven.