Plate XXVII. Male and Female.
Head and neck bright crimson, that colour descending on the fore neck,
and margined with a semilunar band of black; back wings and tail
glossy bluish-black; inner secondaries, rump, and lower parts, pure
white. Young with the head and neck brownish-grey, streaked with
dusky; feathers of back and wing-coverts dusky, edged with grey;
secondary quills yellowish-white barred with black; lower parts
greyish-white, the sides streaked with dusky.
_Male_, 9, 17. _Female_, 8-1/2.
Breeds from Texas to Nova Scotia, and throughout the interior to the
head waters of the Missouri; thence to Lake Huron. Extremely common.
Great numbers spend the winter in Louisiana.
Red-headed Woodpecker, Picus erythrocephalus, Wils. Amer. Orn.
v. i. p. 142.
Picus erythrocephalus, Bonap. Syn. p. 45.
Melanerpes erythrocephalus, Red-headed Woodpecker, Swains. &
Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 316.
Red-headed Woodpecker, Picus erythrocephalus, Aud. Orn. Biog.
v. i. p. 141; v. v. p. 536.