Male with the crown of the head and throat bright carmine; a
semicircular patch of black on the lower fore neck, and a semilunar
band on the occiput; upper parts bluish-black, variegated with white
and yellow, lower yellow, with the sides undulated with dusky; middle
tail-feathers with the inner web white, obliquely banded with black.
Female similar, but with the throat white, and the yellow of the lower
parts less pure. Young without red on the head or throat, the former
dusky, streaked with faint brown, the latter greyish-white, the upper
parts as in the adult, but duller, the tail variegated with white, the
lower parts dull yellowish-grey, undulated with dusky, the abdomen
dull yellowish.
_Male_, 8-1/2, 15.
Breeds from Maryland northward to the Saskatchewan. Rather rare in the
interior in summer. Many spend the winter in the Southern and Western
Districts.
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Picus varius, Wils. Amer. Orn. v.
i. p. 147.
Picus varius, Bonap. Syn. p. 45.
Picus (Dendrocopus) varius, Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Swains.
& Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 309.
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Nutt. Man. v. i. p. 574.
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Picus varius. Aud. Amer. Orn. v. i.
p. 519; v. v. p. 537.
** Hind toe wanting. Genus _Apternus_ of authors.