Mr. Dresser found this bird resident and abundant in Texas. It is also equally abundant in Louisiana and in Florida, and Mr. Ridgway considers it very common in Southern Illinois. Neither Mr. Boardman nor Mr. Verrill have found it in Maine. Mr. McIlwraith has, however, taken three specimens at Hamilton, Canada West, May 3, near Chatham. Mr. Allen gives it as a summer visitant in Western Massachusetts, having seen one on the 13th of May, 1863. It has also been taken several times in Connecticut, by Professor Emmons, who met with it, during the breeding-season, in the extreme western part of the State. Mr. Lawrence has found it near New York City, and Mr. Turnbull in Eastern Pennsylvania.
The eggs vary from an oblong to a somewhat rounded oval shape, are of a bright crystalline whiteness, and their measurements average 1.02 inches in length by .88 of an inch in breadth.
YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER.
Picus aurifrons, Wagler, Isis, 1829, 512.—Sundevall, Consp. Pic. 53. Centurus aurifrons, Gray, Genera.—Cabanis, Jour. 1862, 323.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 399. Centurus flaviventris, Swainson, Anim. in Menag. 1838 (2½ centenaries), 354.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 110, pl. xlii.—Heermann, P. R. Rep. X, c, 18.—Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 469 (resident in Texas).—Ib. Rep. Mex. Bound. II, 5, pl. iv. Centurus elegans, Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. V, May, 1851, 116. Centurus santacruzi, Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. V, 1851, 123 (not ofBonap.). Picus ornatus, Less. Rev. Zoöl. 1839, 102.
Sp. Char. Fourth and fifth quills nearly equal; third a little shorter; longer than the fourth. Back banded transversely with black and white; rump and upper tail-coverts pure white. Crown with a subquadrate spot of crimson, about half an inch wide and long; and separated from the gamboge-yellow at the base of the bill by dirty white, from the orbit and occiput by brownish-ash. Nape half-way round the neck orange-yellow. Under part generally, and sides of head, dirty white. Middle of belly gamboge-yellow. Tail-feathers all entirely black, except the outer, which has some obscure bars of white. Length about 9.50; wing, 5.00. Female without the red of the crown.
Hab. Rio Grande region of the United States, south into Mexico. Probably Arizona. Localities: Orizaba (Scl. P. Z. S. 1860, 252); Texas, south of San Antonio (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 469, resident).
Young birds are not different from adults, except in showing indication of dark shaft-lines beneath, becoming broader behind on the sides. The yellow of the nape extends over the whole side of the head.
Habits. This beautiful Woodpecker is abundant throughout the valley of the Rio Grande, from Eagle Pass to its mouth; how far to the west within our boundaries it occurs, I am not able to state. It is common throughout Mexico, and was found in the Guatemalan collection of Van Patten, though not mentioned by Sclater and Salvin. Dr. Woodhouse, in his Report on the zoölogy of Captain Sitgreaves’s expedition, speaks of finding it quite abundant in the neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas. He adds that west of the Rio San Pedro he did not meet with it. He speaks of it as having a loud, sharp cry, which it utters as it flies from tree to tree. He observed it mostly on the trunks of the mesquite (Algarobia), diligently searching in the usual manner of Woodpeckers. In the Report upon the birds of the Mexican Boundary Survey, it is mentioned by Mr. Clark as abundant on the Lower Rio Grande, as very shy, and as keeping chiefly about the mesquite. Lieutenant Couch speaks of it as very common throughout Tamaulipas.
Mr. Dresser found the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker plentiful from the Rio Grande to San Antonio, and as far north and east as the Guadaloupe, after which he lost sight of it. Wherever the mesquite-trees were large, there it was sure to be found, and very sparingly elsewhere. Near San Antonio it is quite common, but not so much so as the C. carolinus. At Eagle Pass, however, it was the more abundant of the two. He found it