Illustration: Picus albolarvatusPicus albolarvatus.Sp. Char.Fourth and fifth quills equal and longest; tip of first equidistant between sixth and seventh. Entirely bluish-black, excepting the head and neck, and the outer edges of the primaries (except outermost), and the concealed bases of all the quills, which are white. Length, about 9.00; wing, 5.25. Male with a narrow crescent of red on the occiput.Hab.Cascade Mountains of Oregon and southward into California. Sierra Nevada.Habits.This very plainly marked Woodpecker, formerly considered very rare, is now known to be abundant in the mountains of Northern California and Nevada, as also in the mountain-ranges of Washington Territory and Oregon. Dr. Cooper found it quite common near the summits of the Sierra Nevada, latitude 39°, in September, 1863, and procured three specimens. Three years previously he had met with it at Fort Dalles, Columbia River. He thinks that its chief range of distribution will be found to be between those two points. He also found it as far north as Fort Colville, in the northern part of Washington Territory, latitude 49°. He characterizes it as a rather silent bird.Dr. Newberry only met with this bird among the Cascade Mountains, in Oregon, where he did not find it common.Mr. J. G. Bell, who first discovered this species, in the vicinity of Sutter’s Mills, in California, on the American River, represents it as frequenting the higher branches of the pines, keeping almost out of gunshot range. Active and restless in its movements, it uttered at rare intervals a sharp and clear note, while busily pursuing its search for food.Mr. John K. Lord states that the only place in which he saw this very rare bird was in the open timbered country about the Colville Valley and Spokan River. He has observed that this Woodpecker almost invariably haunts woods of thePinus ponderosa, and never retires into the thick damp forest. It arrives in small numbers at Colville, in April, and disappears again in October and November, or as soon as the snow begins to fall. Although he did not succeed in obtaining its eggs, he saw a pair nesting in the month of May in a hole bored in the branch of a very tall pine-tree. It seldom flies far, but darts from tree to tree with a short jerking flight, and always, while flying, utters a sharp, clear, chirping cry. Mr. Ridgway found it to be common in the pine forests of the Sierra Nevada, in the region of the Donner Lake Pass. It was first observed in July, at an altitude of about five thousand feet, on the western slope of that range, where it was seen playing about the tops of the tallest dead pines. On various occasions, at all seasons, it was afterwards found to be quite plentiful on the eastern slope, in the neighborhood of Carson City, Nevada. Its habits and manners are described as much like those of theP. harrisi, but it is of a livelier and more restless disposition. Its notes have some resemblance to those of that species, but are of a more rattling character. It is easily recognized, when seen, by its strikingly peculiar plumage.GenusPICOIDES,Lacep.Picoides,Lacep.Mem. Inst.1799. (Type,Picus tridactylus.)Tridactylia,Steph.Shaw,Gen. Zoöl.1815.Apternus,Sw.F. B. A. II, 1831, 311.Illustration: Picoides arcticusPicoides arcticus.39143♂Gen. Char.Bill about as long as the head, very much depressed at the base; the outlines nearly straight; the lateral ridge at its base much nearer the commissure than the culmen, so as to bring the large, rather linear nostrils close to the edge of the commissure. The gonys very long, equal to the distance from the nostrils to the tip of the bill. Feet with only three toes, the first or inner hinder one being wanting; the outer lateral a little longer than the inner, but slightly exceeded by the hind toe, which is about equal to the tarsus. Wings very long, reaching beyond the middle of the tail, the tip of the first quill between those of sixth and seventh. Color black above, with a broad patch of yellow on the crown; white beneath, transversely banded on the sides. Quills, but not wing-coverts, with round spots. Lateral tail-feathers white, without bands on exposed portion, except in European specimens.The peculiarities of this genus consist in the absence of the inner hind toe and the great depression of the bill. The figure above fails to represent the median ridge of the bill as viewed from above.Common Characters.The American species ofPicoidesagree in being black above and white beneath; the crown with a square yellow patch in the male; a white stripe behind the eye, and another from the loral region beneath the eye; the quills (but not the coverts) spotted with white; the sides banded transversely with black. The diagnostic characters (including the European species) are asfollows:—Species and Varieties.P. arcticus.Dorsal region without white markings; no supraloral white stripe or streak, nor nuchal band of white. Four middle tail-feathers wholly black; the next pair with the basal half black; the outer two pairs almost wholly white, without any dark bars. Entire sides heavily banded with black; crissum immaculate; sides of the breast continuously black.♂. Crown with a patch of yellow, varying from lemon, through gamboge, to orange, and not surrounded by any whitish markings or suffusion.♀. Crown lustrous black, without any yellow, and destitute of white streaks or other markings. Wing, 4.85 to 5.25; tail, 3.60; culmen, 1.40 to 1.55.Hab.Northern parts of North America. In winter just within the northern border of the United States, but farther south on high mountain-ranges.P. tridactylus.Dorsal region with white markings, of various amount and direction; a more or less distinct supraloral white streak or stripe, and a more or less apparent nuchal band of the same. Four to six middle tail-feathers entirely black; when six, the remainder are white, with distinct black bars to their ends; when four, they are white without any black bars, except occasionally a few toward the base. Sides always with black streaks or markings, but they are sometimes very sparse; crissum banded with black, or immaculate; sides of the breast not continuously black.♂. Crown with a patch of gamboge, amber, or sulphur-yellow, surrounded by a whitish suffusion or markings.♀. Crown without any yellow, but distinctly streaked, speckled, or suffused with whitish (very seldom plain black).a.Six middle tail-feathers wholly black. Europe and Asia.Sides and crissum heavily barred with black (black bars about as wide as the white ones).Back usually transversely spotted with white; occasionally longitudinally striped with the same in Scandinavian examples. Wing, 4.80 to 5.10; tail, 3.80 to 4.00; culmen, 1.20 to 1.35.Hab.Europe …var.tridactylus.[127]Sides and crissum almost free from black bars; black bars on the outer tail-feathers very much narrower than the white.Back always (?) striped longitudinally with white. Wing, 4.70 to 4.75; tail, 3.65 to 3.90; culmen, 1.20 to 1.35.Hab.Siberia and Northern Russia …var.crissoleucus.[128]b.Four middle tail-feathers, only, wholly black. North America.Sides heavily barred with black, but crissum without bars, except beneath the surface. Three outer tail-feathers without black bars, except sometimes on the basal portion of the inner webs. Wing, 4.40 to 5.10; tail, 3.40 to 3.70; culmen, 1.10 to 1.25.Back transversely spotted or barred with white.Hab.Hudson’s Bay region; south in winter to northern border of Eastern United States …var.americanus.Back longitudinally striped with white at all seasons.Hab.Rocky Mountains; north to Alaska …var.dorsalis.Picoides arcticus,Gray.THE BLACK-BACKED THREE-TOED WOODPECKER.Picus (Apternus) arcticus,Sw.F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 313.Apternus arcticus,Bp.List, 1838.—Ib.Consp.1850, 139.—Newberry,Zoöl. Cal. and Oreg. Route, 91,Rep. P. R. R. Surv. VI, 1857.Picus arcticus,Aud.Syn.1839, 182.—Ib.BirdsAmer. VI, 1842, 266,pl. cclxviii.—Nuttall,Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 691.—Sundevall,Consp. I, 1866, 15.Picus tridactylus,Bon.Am. Orn. II, 1828, 14,pl. xiv, f.2.—Aud.Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 198,pl. cxxxii.Tridactylia arctica,Cab. & Hein.Picoides arcticus,Gray,Gen.—Baird,Birds N. Am.1858, 98.—Lord,Pr. R. Art. Inst.Woolwich,IV, 1864, 112 (Cascade Mountains).—Cooper,Pr. Cal. Ac. Sc.1868 (Lake Tahoe and Sierra Nevada).—Samuels, 94.—Cooper,Orn. Cal.1, 1870, 384.Illustration: Picoides arcticusPicoides arcticus.Sp. Char.Above entirely uniform glossy bluish-black; a square patch on the middle of the crown saffron-yellow, and a few white spots on the outer edges of both webs of the primary and secondary quills. Beneath white, on the sides of whole body, axillars, and inner wing-coverts banded transversely with black. Crissum white, with a few spots anteriorly. A narrow concealed white line from the eye a short distance backwards, and a white stripe from the extreme forehead (meeting anteriorly) under the eye, and down the sides of the neck, bordered below by a narrow stripe of black. Bristly feathers of the base of the bill brown; sometimes a few gray intermixed. Exposed portion of two outer tail-feathers (first and second) white; the third obliquely white at end, tipped with black. Sometimes these feathers with a narrow black tip.Hab.Northern North America; south to northern borders of United States in winter. Massachusetts (Maynard,B. E. Mass., 1870, 129). Sierra Nevada, south to 39°. Lake Tahoe (Cooper); Carson City (Ridgway).This species differs from the other American three-toed Woodpeckers chiefly in having the back entirely black. The white line from the eye is usually almost imperceptible, if not wanting entirely. Specimens vary very little; one from Slave Lake has a longer bill than usual, and the top of head more orange. The size of the vertex patch varies; sometimes the frontal whitish is inappreciable. None of the females before me have any white spots in the black of head, as in that ofamericanus.The variations in this species are very slight, being chiefly in the shade of the yellow patch on the crown, which varies from a sulphur tint to a rich orange. Sometimes there is the faintest trace of a whitish post-ocular streak, but usually this is wholly absent. Western and Eastern examples appear to be identical.Illustration: Color plate 50PLATEL.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 11.Picoides arcticus.♂Nova Scotia, 26923.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 22.Picoides americanus.♂New Brunswick, 39143.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 33.Picus nuttalli.♂Cal., 4482.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 44.Picus scalaris.♂Texas, 46804.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 55.Picus scalaris.♀Texas, 9933.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 66.Picus nuttalli.♀Cal., 5400.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 77.Picus albolarvatus.♂Cal., 16066.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 88.Picus albolarvatus♀Cal.Habits.This species has a well-defined and extended distribution, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and from the northern portions of the United States to the extreme Arctic regions. In the United States it has been found as far south as Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio, but rarely; and, so far as I am aware, it is a winter visitant only to any but the extreme northern portions of the Union, except along the line of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Audubon says it occurs in Northern Massachusetts, and in all portions of Maine that are covered by forests of tall trees, where it constantly resides. He saw a few in the Great Pine Forest of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Bachman noticed several in the neighborhood of Niagara Falls, and was of the opinion that it breeds in the northern part of New York. The same writer describes the nesting-place of the Arctic Woodpecker as generally bored in the body of a sound tree, near its first large branches. He observed no particular choice as to the timber, having seen it in oaks, pines, etc. The nest, like that of most of this family, is worked out by both sexes, and requires fully a week for its completion. Its usual depth is from twenty to twenty-four inches. It is smooth and broad at the bottom, although so narrow at its entrance as to appear scarcely sufficient to enable one of the birds to enter it. The eggs are from four to six, rather rounded and pure white. Only one brood is raised in the season. The young follow their parents until the autumn. In the southern districts where these Woodpeckers are found, their numbers are greatly increased in the winter by accessions from the North.Dr. Cooper found this species quite numerous, in September, in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe and the summits of the Sierra Nevada, above an altitude of six thousand feet. From thence this bird has a northern range chiefly on the east side of these mountains and of the Cascade Range. None were seen near the Lower Columbia. At the lake they were quite fearless, coming close to the hotel, and industriously rapping the trees in the evening and in the early morning. Farther north Dr. Cooper found them very wild, owing probably to their having been hunted by the Indians for their skins, which they consider very valuable. He noticed their burrows in low pine-trees near the lake, where he had no doubt they also raise their young. Dr. Cooper has always found them very silent birds, though in the spring they probably have more variety of calls. The only note he heard was a shrill, harsh, rattling cry, quite distinct from that of any other Woodpecker.The flight of this Woodpecker is described as rapid, gliding, and greatly undulated. Occasionally it will fly to quite a distance before it alights, uttering, from time to time, a loud shrill note.Professor Verrill says this bird is very common in Western Maine, in the spring, fall, and winter, or from the middle of October to the middle or end of March. It is not known to occur there in the summer. Near Calais a few are seen, and it is supposed to breed, but is not common. In Massachusetts it is only a rare and accidental visitant, occurring usually late inwinter or in March. Two were taken near Salem in November. It is also a rare winter visitant near Hamilton in Canada.Mr. Ridgway met with but a single individual of this species during his Western explorations. This was shot in February, near Carson City, Nevada; it was busily engaged in pecking upon the trunk of a large pine, and was perfectly silent.Mr. John K. Lord obtained a single specimen of this bird on the summit of the Cascade Mountains. It was late in September, and getting cold; the bird was flying restlessly from tree to tree, but not searching for insects. Both when on the wing and when clinging to a tree, it was continually uttering a shrill, plaintive cry. Its favorite tree is thePinus contorta, which grows at great altitudes. It is found chiefly on hill-tops, while in the valleys and lower plains it is replaced by thePicoides hirsutus.Eggs of this species were obtained by Professor Agassiz on the northern shore of Lake Superior. They were slightly ovate, nearly spherical, rounded at one end and abruptly pointed at the other, of a crystal whiteness, and measured .91 of an inch in length by .70 in breadth.An egg received from Mr. Krieghoff is small in proportion to the size of the bird, nearly spherical in form, and of a uniform dull-white color. It measures .92 of an inch in length by .76 in breadth.Picoides tridactylus,var.americanus,Brehm.THE WHITE-BACKED THREE-TOED WOODPECKER.Picus hirsutus,Vieillot,Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 68,pl. cxxiv(European specimen).—Wagler,Syst. Av.1827,No.27 (mixed withundulatus).—Aud.Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 184,pl. ccccxvii.—Ib.BirdsAmer. IV, 1842,pl. cclxix.—Nuttall,Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 622.Apternus hirsutus,Bon.List,Picoides hirsutus,Baird,Birds N. Am.1858, 98.—Samuels, 95.? Picus undulatus,Vieillot,Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 69 (based onPl. enl.553, fictitious species?)Picus undatus,Temm.Picus undosus,Cuv.R. A.1829, 451 (all based on same figure).Tridactylia undulata,Cab. & Hein.Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 28.Picus tridactylus,Sw.F. Bor. Am.1831, 311,pl. lvi.Picoides americanus,Brehm,Vögel Deutschlands, 1831, 195.—Malherbe,Mon.Picidæ,I, 176,pl. xvii, 36.—Sclater,Catal.—Gray,Cat. Br. Mus. III, 3, 4, 1868, 30.Apternus americanus,Swainson,Class. II, 1837, 306.Picus americanus,Sundevall,Consp. Av. Picin.1866, 15.Picoides dorsalis,Baird,Birds N. Am.1858, 100,pl. lxxxv, f.1.—Cooper,Orn. Cal.1, 1870 (underP. americanus).Tridactylia dorsalis,Cab. & Hein.Picus dorsalis,Sundevall,Consp.1866, 14.Sp. Char.Black above. The back markings of white, transverse in summer, and longitudinal in winter; these extend to the rump, which is sometimes almost wholly white. A white line from behind the eye, widening on the nape, and a broader one under the eye from the loral region, but not extending on the forehead; occiput and sides of head uniform black. Quills, but not coverts, spotted on both webs with white, seen on inner webs of inner secondaries. Under parts, including crissum, white; the sides, including axillars and lining of wing, banded transversely with black. Exposed portion of outer three tail-feathers white; that of third much less, and sometimes with a narrow tip of black. Upper tail-coverts sometimes tipped with white, and occasionally, but very rarely,banded with the same. Top of the head spotted, streaked, or suffused with white; the crown of the male with a yellow patch. Nasal bristles black, mixed with gray. Female with the whole top of head usually spotted with white, very rarely entirely black.Hab.Arctic regions of North America; southward in the Rocky Mountains to Fort Buchanan; northern border of the Eastern United States, in winter (Massachusetts,Maynard).This species varies considerably in its markings, especially in the amount of white above. The head is sometimes more coarsely spotted with white than in the average; very rarely are the white spots wanting, leaving merely the broad malar and interrupted post-ocular stripe. The rictal black stripe is sometimes much obscured by white. In typical specimens from the Hudson Bay and Labrador Provinces, which seem to be darkest, the feathers of the centre of the back have three transverse bars of white (one of them terminal), rather narrower than the intermediate black bars; the basal white ones disappearing both anteriorly and posteriorly, leaving but two. In specimens from the Mackenzie River district there is a greater development of white; the white bands being broader than the black, and sometimes extending along the shafts so as to reduce the black bars to pairs of spots. The next step is the disappearance of these spots on one side or the other, or on both, leaving the end of the feathers entirely white, especially anteriorly, where the back may have a longitudinal stripe of white, as inPicus villosus. Usually, however, in this extreme, the upper tail-coverts remain banded transversely. In all the specimens from the Rocky Mountains of the United States, especially Laramie Peak, this white back, unbarred except on the rump, is a constant character, and added to it we have a broad nuchal patch of white running into that of the back and connected with the white post-ocular stripe. The bands, too, on the sides of the body, are less distinct. It was to this state of plumage that the name ofP. dorsaliswas applied, in 1858, and although in view of the connecting links it may not be entitled to consideration as a distinct race, this tendency to a permanence of the longitudinal direction of the white markings above seems to be especially characteristic of the Rocky Mountain region, appearing only in winter birds from elsewhere. This same character prevails in all the Rocky Mountain specimens from more northern regions, including those from Fort Liard, and in only one not found in that region, namely,No.49,905, collected at Nulato by Mr. Dall. Here the middle of the back is very white, although the nuchal band is less distinct. Other specimens from that locality and the Yukon River generally, as also from Kodiak, distinctly show the transverse bars.In one specimen (29,126) from the Mackenzie River, all the upper tail-coverts are banded decidedly with white, and the wing-coverts spotted with the same. Even the central tail-feathers show white scallops. The back is, however, banded transversely very distinctly, not longitudinally.P. americanusin all stages of color is distinguished fromarcticusby the white along the middle of the back, the absence of distinct frontal whiteand black bands, more numerous spots of white on the head, etc. The inner webs of inner secondaries are banded with white, not uniform black. The maxillary black stripe is rather larger than the rictal white one, not smaller. The size is decidedly smaller. Females almost always have the top of head spotted with white instead of uniform black, which is the rule inarcticus.It is probable that the difference in the amount of white on the upper parts of this species is to some extent due to age and season, the winter specimens and the young showing it to the greatest degree. Still, however, there is a decided geographical relationship, as already indicated.This race ofP. tridactyluscan be easily distinguished from the European form of Northern and Alpine Europe by the tail-feathers; of these, the outer three are white (the rest black) as far as exposed, without any bands; the tip of the third being white only at the end. The supra-ocular white stripe is very narrow and scarcely appreciable; the crissum white and unbanded. The back is banded transversely in one variety, striped longitudinally in the other. InP. tridactylusthe outer two feathers on each side are white, banded with black; the outer with the bands regular and equal from base; the second black, except one or two terminal bands. The crissum is well banded with black; the back striped longitudinally with white; the supra-ocular white stripe almost as broad as the infra-ocular.P. crisoleucus, of Siberia, is similar to the last, but differs in white crissum, and from both species in the almost entire absence of dark bands on the sides, showing the Arctic maximum of white.We follow Sundevall in using the specific nameamericanus, Brehm, for this species, as being the first legitimately belonging to it.P. hirsutusof Vieillot, usually adopted, is based on a European bird, and agrees with it, though referred by the author to the American. The name ofundulatus, Vieillot, selected by Cabanis, is based on Buffon’s figure (Pl. enl.553) of a bird said to be from Cayenne, with four toes; the whole top of the head red from base of bill to end of occiput, with the edges of the dorsal feathers narrowly white, and with the three lateral tail-feathers regularly banded with black, tipped with red; the fourth, banded white and black on outer web, tipped with black. None of those features belong to the bird of Arctic America, and the markings answer, if to either, better to the European.Habits.This rare and interesting species, so far as has been ascertained, is nowhere a common or well-known bird. It is probably exclusively of Arctic residence, and only occasionally or very rarely is found so far south as Massachusetts. In the winter of 1836 I found a specimen exposed for sale in the Boston market, which was sent in alcohol to Mr. Audubon. Two specimens have been taken in Lynn, by Mr. Welch, in 1868. They occur, also, in Southern Wisconsin in the winter, where Mr. Kumlien has several times, in successive winters, obtained single individuals.Sir John Richardson states that this bird is to be met with in all the forests of spruce and fir lying between Lake Superior and the Arctic Sea, andthat it is the most common Woodpecker north of Great Slave Lake, whence it has frequently been sent to the Smithsonian Institution. It is said to greatly resembleP. villosusin habits, except that it seeks its food principally upon decaying trees of the pine tribe, in which it frequently makes holes large enough to bury itself. It is not migratory.GenusSPHYROPICUS,Baird.Pilumnus,Bon.Consp. Zygod. Ateneo Italiano, May, 1854. (TypeP. thyroideus) preoccupied in crustaceans.Sphyropicus,Baird,Birds N. Am.1858, 101. (Type,Picus varius,)Linn.,Coues,Pr. A. N. S.1866, 52 (anatomy).Cladoscopus,Cab. & Hein.Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 80. (Type,P. varius.)Illustration: Sphyropicus nuchalisSphyropicus nuchalis.20511♀Gen. Char.Bill as inPicus, but the lateral ridge, which is very prominent, running out distinctly to the commissure at about its middle, beyond which the bill is rounded without any angles at all. The culmen and gonys are very nearly straight, but slightly convex, the bill tapering rapidly to a point; the lateral outline concave to very near the slightly bevelled tip. Outer pair of toes longest; the hinder exterior rather longest; the inner posterior toe very short, less than the inner anterior without its claw. Wings long and pointed; the third, excluding the spurious, longest. Tail-feathers very broad, abruptly acuminate, with a very long linear tip. Tongue scarcely extensible.The genusSphyropicus, instituted in 1858, proves to be so strongly marked in its characters that Dr. Coues proposes to make it the type of a distinct subfamily,Sphyropicinæ(Pr. Phil. Acad.1866, 52). In addition to the peculiarities already indicated, there is a remarkable feature in the tongue, which, according to Dr. Coues, Dr. Hoy, Dr. Bryant, and others, is incapable of protrusion much beyond the tip of the bill, or not more than the third of an inch. Dr. Coues states that the apo-hyal and cerato-hyal elements of the hyoid bone do not reach back much beyond the tympano-maxillary articulation, instead of extending round, as inPicus, over the occiput to the top of the cranium, or even curving into an osseous groove around the orbit. The basihyals supporting the tongue are shorter and differently shaped. The tongue itself is short and flattened, with a superior longitudinal median groove and a corresponding inferior ridge; the tip is broad and flattened and obtuselyrounded, and with numerous long and soft bristly hairs. This is, of course, very different from the long, extensile, acutely pointed tongue of other Woodpeckers, with its tip armed with a few strong, sharp, short, recurved barbs.Dr. Hoy and Dr. Coues maintain that the food of these Woodpeckers consists mainly of the cambium or soft inner bark of trees, which is cut out in patches sometimes of several inches in extent, and usually producing square holes in the bark, not rounded ones. As may be supposed, such proceedings are very injurious to the trees, and justly call down the vengeance of their proprietors. This diet is varied with insects and fruits, when they can be had, but it is believed that cambium is their principal sustenance.This strongly marked genus appears to be composed of two sections and three well-defined species; the first being characterized by having the back variegated with whitish, and the jugulum with a sharply defined crescentic patch of black, though the latter is sometimes concealed by red, when the whole head and neck are of the latter color, and the sharply defined striped pattern of the cephalic regions, seen in the normal plumage, obliterated. Comparing the extreme conditions of plumage to be seen in this type, as in the females ofvariusand ofruber, the differences appear wide indeed, and few would entertain for a moment a suspicion of their specific identity; yet upon carefully examining a sufficiently large series of specimens, we find these extremes to be connected by an unbroken transition, and are thus led to view these different conditions as manifestations of a peculiar law principally affecting a certain color, which leads us irresistibly to the conclusion that the group which at first seemed to compose a section of the genus is in reality only an association of forms of specific identity. Beginning with the birds of the Atlantic region (S. varius), we find in this series the minimum amount of red; indeed, many adult females occur which lack this color entirely, having not only the whole throat white, but the entire pileum glossy-black; usually, however, the latter is crimson. In adult males from this region the front and crown are always crimson, sharply defined, and bordered laterally and posteriorly with glossy-black; and below the black occipital band is another of dirty white; the crimson of the throat is wholly confined between the continuous broad, black malar stripes, and there is no tinge of red on the auriculars; there is a broad, sharply defined stripe of white beginning with the nasal tufts, passing beneath the black loral and auricular stripe, and continuing downward into the yellowish of the abdomen, giving the large, glossy-black pectoral area a sharply defined outline; the dirty whitish nuchal band is continued forward beneath the black occipital crescent to above the middle of the eye. The pattern just described will be found in ninety-nine out of a hundred specimens from the Eastern Province of North America (also the West Indies and whole of Mexico); but a single adult male, from Carlisle,Penn.(No.12,071, W. M. Baird), has the whitish nuchal band distinctly tinged with red, though differing inthis respect only, while an adult female, from Washington, D. C. (No.12,260, C. Drexler), has the lower part of the throat much mixed with red.Taking next the specimens from the Rocky Mountains and Middle Province of the United States (S. nuchalis), we find thatallthe specimens possessboththese additional amounts of the red, there being always a red, instead of dirty-white, nuchal crescent, while in the female the lower part of the throat is always more or less red; in addition, the male has the red of the throat reaching laterally to the white stripe, thus interrupting the black malar one, which is always unbroken in the eastern form; and in addition, the auriculars are frequently mixed with red. Proceeding towards the Columbia River, we find the red increasing, or escaping the limits to which it is confined in the normal pattern, staining the white and black areas in different places, and tingeing the whitish which borders the black pectoral area.Lastly, in the series from the Pacific coast (S. ruber), we find the whole normal pattern rendered scarcely definable—sometimes entirely obliterated—by the extension of the red, which covers continuously the whole head, neck, and breast; but nearly always the normal pattern may be traced, the feathers of the normally black areas being dusky beneath the surface, and those of the usual white stripes very white for the concealed portion. Usually, in this form, the red of the breast covers only the black pectoral area; but in extreme specimens it reaches back to the middle of the body beneath, and stains the white spots of the back.With the increase of the red as we proceed westward, there is also a decrease in the amount of white above; thus, invariusthe whole back is irregularly spotted with dirty white and black,—the former predominating, the latter most conspicuous as a medial, broken broad stripe,—and the lateral tail-feathers are much variegated by white spots. Innuchalisthe back is mostly unbroken glossy-black, with two parallelnarrowstripes of white converging at their lower ends; and the lateral tail-feather is almost wholly black, having merely a narrow white border toward the end.S. ruberis most likenuchalis, but has the white still more restricted.Invariusthe bill is dark brown, innuchalisit is deep black, and inruberwax-brown. Invariusthe yellow of the lower parts is deepest, innuchalisjust appreciable.Species and Varieties.A.Wing with a white patch on the middle and greater coverts. Markings along the sides with a longitudinal tendency.1.S. varius.Back variegated medially with brownish-white; secondaries with transverse rows of white spots.White and black stripes on side of head sharply defined, as is also the black pectoral crescent. Red confined to isolated patches,—two large ones, one on the crown and one on the throat; when there is more, only a tinge on the auriculars, and a crescent on nape.Crown sometimes glossy black without a trace of red on the female; no tinge of scarlet on the nape. Red of the throat entirely confinedwithin the broad, continuous black maxillary stripe.Femalewith the throat wholly white.Hab.Eastern Province North America, south in winter into West Indies, and over whole of Mexico, to Guatemala …var.varius.Crown always red in adult. A nuchal crescent of scarlet in both sexes. Red of the throat not confined by the black maxillary stripe, which is interrupted by it in the middle, allowing the red to touch the white stripe; a tinge of red on the auriculars.Femalealways with more or less red on lower part of the throat.Hab.Rocky Mountains and Middle Province of United States …var.nuchalis.White and black stripes on side of head obsolete, as is also the black pectoral crescent, caused by being overspread by a continuous red wash extending over whole head, neck, and breast.Whole head, neck, and breast red, with the light and dark stripes of the normal pattern only faintly traceable. Sexes similar.Hab.Pacific Province of United States, north to British Columbia …var.ruber.2.S. williamsoni.Back unvariegated; secondaries without bands of white spots.Whole crown and upper parts (except lower part of rump and upper tail-coverts, and wing-patch), a stripe on side of head, a broader one on side of the throat, and the whole jugulum and sides of the breast, unbroken glossy-black; abdomen bright lemon-yellow.Malewith a narrow stripe of scarlet on middle of the throat.Femalewith it white.Younglike the adult.Hab.Western Province of United States.B.Wing without a white patch. Markings on sides regularly transverse.3.S. thyroideus.Head all round light brown; abdomen bright lemon-yellow; rump and upper tail-coverts white. Entire upper surface, with sides, regularly and continuously barred with black and white, in nearly equal amount; the black bars usually coalesced on the jugulum into a more or less extensive patch.Malewith the throat tinged medially with scarlet.Femalewithout any red.Hab.Western Province of United States.
Illustration: Picus albolarvatusPicus albolarvatus.Sp. Char.Fourth and fifth quills equal and longest; tip of first equidistant between sixth and seventh. Entirely bluish-black, excepting the head and neck, and the outer edges of the primaries (except outermost), and the concealed bases of all the quills, which are white. Length, about 9.00; wing, 5.25. Male with a narrow crescent of red on the occiput.Hab.Cascade Mountains of Oregon and southward into California. Sierra Nevada.Habits.This very plainly marked Woodpecker, formerly considered very rare, is now known to be abundant in the mountains of Northern California and Nevada, as also in the mountain-ranges of Washington Territory and Oregon. Dr. Cooper found it quite common near the summits of the Sierra Nevada, latitude 39°, in September, 1863, and procured three specimens. Three years previously he had met with it at Fort Dalles, Columbia River. He thinks that its chief range of distribution will be found to be between those two points. He also found it as far north as Fort Colville, in the northern part of Washington Territory, latitude 49°. He characterizes it as a rather silent bird.Dr. Newberry only met with this bird among the Cascade Mountains, in Oregon, where he did not find it common.Mr. J. G. Bell, who first discovered this species, in the vicinity of Sutter’s Mills, in California, on the American River, represents it as frequenting the higher branches of the pines, keeping almost out of gunshot range. Active and restless in its movements, it uttered at rare intervals a sharp and clear note, while busily pursuing its search for food.Mr. John K. Lord states that the only place in which he saw this very rare bird was in the open timbered country about the Colville Valley and Spokan River. He has observed that this Woodpecker almost invariably haunts woods of thePinus ponderosa, and never retires into the thick damp forest. It arrives in small numbers at Colville, in April, and disappears again in October and November, or as soon as the snow begins to fall. Although he did not succeed in obtaining its eggs, he saw a pair nesting in the month of May in a hole bored in the branch of a very tall pine-tree. It seldom flies far, but darts from tree to tree with a short jerking flight, and always, while flying, utters a sharp, clear, chirping cry. Mr. Ridgway found it to be common in the pine forests of the Sierra Nevada, in the region of the Donner Lake Pass. It was first observed in July, at an altitude of about five thousand feet, on the western slope of that range, where it was seen playing about the tops of the tallest dead pines. On various occasions, at all seasons, it was afterwards found to be quite plentiful on the eastern slope, in the neighborhood of Carson City, Nevada. Its habits and manners are described as much like those of theP. harrisi, but it is of a livelier and more restless disposition. Its notes have some resemblance to those of that species, but are of a more rattling character. It is easily recognized, when seen, by its strikingly peculiar plumage.GenusPICOIDES,Lacep.Picoides,Lacep.Mem. Inst.1799. (Type,Picus tridactylus.)Tridactylia,Steph.Shaw,Gen. Zoöl.1815.Apternus,Sw.F. B. A. II, 1831, 311.Illustration: Picoides arcticusPicoides arcticus.39143♂Gen. Char.Bill about as long as the head, very much depressed at the base; the outlines nearly straight; the lateral ridge at its base much nearer the commissure than the culmen, so as to bring the large, rather linear nostrils close to the edge of the commissure. The gonys very long, equal to the distance from the nostrils to the tip of the bill. Feet with only three toes, the first or inner hinder one being wanting; the outer lateral a little longer than the inner, but slightly exceeded by the hind toe, which is about equal to the tarsus. Wings very long, reaching beyond the middle of the tail, the tip of the first quill between those of sixth and seventh. Color black above, with a broad patch of yellow on the crown; white beneath, transversely banded on the sides. Quills, but not wing-coverts, with round spots. Lateral tail-feathers white, without bands on exposed portion, except in European specimens.The peculiarities of this genus consist in the absence of the inner hind toe and the great depression of the bill. The figure above fails to represent the median ridge of the bill as viewed from above.Common Characters.The American species ofPicoidesagree in being black above and white beneath; the crown with a square yellow patch in the male; a white stripe behind the eye, and another from the loral region beneath the eye; the quills (but not the coverts) spotted with white; the sides banded transversely with black. The diagnostic characters (including the European species) are asfollows:—Species and Varieties.P. arcticus.Dorsal region without white markings; no supraloral white stripe or streak, nor nuchal band of white. Four middle tail-feathers wholly black; the next pair with the basal half black; the outer two pairs almost wholly white, without any dark bars. Entire sides heavily banded with black; crissum immaculate; sides of the breast continuously black.♂. Crown with a patch of yellow, varying from lemon, through gamboge, to orange, and not surrounded by any whitish markings or suffusion.♀. Crown lustrous black, without any yellow, and destitute of white streaks or other markings. Wing, 4.85 to 5.25; tail, 3.60; culmen, 1.40 to 1.55.Hab.Northern parts of North America. In winter just within the northern border of the United States, but farther south on high mountain-ranges.P. tridactylus.Dorsal region with white markings, of various amount and direction; a more or less distinct supraloral white streak or stripe, and a more or less apparent nuchal band of the same. Four to six middle tail-feathers entirely black; when six, the remainder are white, with distinct black bars to their ends; when four, they are white without any black bars, except occasionally a few toward the base. Sides always with black streaks or markings, but they are sometimes very sparse; crissum banded with black, or immaculate; sides of the breast not continuously black.♂. Crown with a patch of gamboge, amber, or sulphur-yellow, surrounded by a whitish suffusion or markings.♀. Crown without any yellow, but distinctly streaked, speckled, or suffused with whitish (very seldom plain black).a.Six middle tail-feathers wholly black. Europe and Asia.Sides and crissum heavily barred with black (black bars about as wide as the white ones).Back usually transversely spotted with white; occasionally longitudinally striped with the same in Scandinavian examples. Wing, 4.80 to 5.10; tail, 3.80 to 4.00; culmen, 1.20 to 1.35.Hab.Europe …var.tridactylus.[127]Sides and crissum almost free from black bars; black bars on the outer tail-feathers very much narrower than the white.Back always (?) striped longitudinally with white. Wing, 4.70 to 4.75; tail, 3.65 to 3.90; culmen, 1.20 to 1.35.Hab.Siberia and Northern Russia …var.crissoleucus.[128]b.Four middle tail-feathers, only, wholly black. North America.Sides heavily barred with black, but crissum without bars, except beneath the surface. Three outer tail-feathers without black bars, except sometimes on the basal portion of the inner webs. Wing, 4.40 to 5.10; tail, 3.40 to 3.70; culmen, 1.10 to 1.25.Back transversely spotted or barred with white.Hab.Hudson’s Bay region; south in winter to northern border of Eastern United States …var.americanus.Back longitudinally striped with white at all seasons.Hab.Rocky Mountains; north to Alaska …var.dorsalis.Picoides arcticus,Gray.THE BLACK-BACKED THREE-TOED WOODPECKER.Picus (Apternus) arcticus,Sw.F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 313.Apternus arcticus,Bp.List, 1838.—Ib.Consp.1850, 139.—Newberry,Zoöl. Cal. and Oreg. Route, 91,Rep. P. R. R. Surv. VI, 1857.Picus arcticus,Aud.Syn.1839, 182.—Ib.BirdsAmer. VI, 1842, 266,pl. cclxviii.—Nuttall,Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 691.—Sundevall,Consp. I, 1866, 15.Picus tridactylus,Bon.Am. Orn. II, 1828, 14,pl. xiv, f.2.—Aud.Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 198,pl. cxxxii.Tridactylia arctica,Cab. & Hein.Picoides arcticus,Gray,Gen.—Baird,Birds N. Am.1858, 98.—Lord,Pr. R. Art. Inst.Woolwich,IV, 1864, 112 (Cascade Mountains).—Cooper,Pr. Cal. Ac. Sc.1868 (Lake Tahoe and Sierra Nevada).—Samuels, 94.—Cooper,Orn. Cal.1, 1870, 384.Illustration: Picoides arcticusPicoides arcticus.Sp. Char.Above entirely uniform glossy bluish-black; a square patch on the middle of the crown saffron-yellow, and a few white spots on the outer edges of both webs of the primary and secondary quills. Beneath white, on the sides of whole body, axillars, and inner wing-coverts banded transversely with black. Crissum white, with a few spots anteriorly. A narrow concealed white line from the eye a short distance backwards, and a white stripe from the extreme forehead (meeting anteriorly) under the eye, and down the sides of the neck, bordered below by a narrow stripe of black. Bristly feathers of the base of the bill brown; sometimes a few gray intermixed. Exposed portion of two outer tail-feathers (first and second) white; the third obliquely white at end, tipped with black. Sometimes these feathers with a narrow black tip.Hab.Northern North America; south to northern borders of United States in winter. Massachusetts (Maynard,B. E. Mass., 1870, 129). Sierra Nevada, south to 39°. Lake Tahoe (Cooper); Carson City (Ridgway).This species differs from the other American three-toed Woodpeckers chiefly in having the back entirely black. The white line from the eye is usually almost imperceptible, if not wanting entirely. Specimens vary very little; one from Slave Lake has a longer bill than usual, and the top of head more orange. The size of the vertex patch varies; sometimes the frontal whitish is inappreciable. None of the females before me have any white spots in the black of head, as in that ofamericanus.The variations in this species are very slight, being chiefly in the shade of the yellow patch on the crown, which varies from a sulphur tint to a rich orange. Sometimes there is the faintest trace of a whitish post-ocular streak, but usually this is wholly absent. Western and Eastern examples appear to be identical.Illustration: Color plate 50PLATEL.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 11.Picoides arcticus.♂Nova Scotia, 26923.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 22.Picoides americanus.♂New Brunswick, 39143.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 33.Picus nuttalli.♂Cal., 4482.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 44.Picus scalaris.♂Texas, 46804.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 55.Picus scalaris.♀Texas, 9933.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 66.Picus nuttalli.♀Cal., 5400.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 77.Picus albolarvatus.♂Cal., 16066.Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 88.Picus albolarvatus♀Cal.Habits.This species has a well-defined and extended distribution, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and from the northern portions of the United States to the extreme Arctic regions. In the United States it has been found as far south as Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio, but rarely; and, so far as I am aware, it is a winter visitant only to any but the extreme northern portions of the Union, except along the line of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Audubon says it occurs in Northern Massachusetts, and in all portions of Maine that are covered by forests of tall trees, where it constantly resides. He saw a few in the Great Pine Forest of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Bachman noticed several in the neighborhood of Niagara Falls, and was of the opinion that it breeds in the northern part of New York. The same writer describes the nesting-place of the Arctic Woodpecker as generally bored in the body of a sound tree, near its first large branches. He observed no particular choice as to the timber, having seen it in oaks, pines, etc. The nest, like that of most of this family, is worked out by both sexes, and requires fully a week for its completion. Its usual depth is from twenty to twenty-four inches. It is smooth and broad at the bottom, although so narrow at its entrance as to appear scarcely sufficient to enable one of the birds to enter it. The eggs are from four to six, rather rounded and pure white. Only one brood is raised in the season. The young follow their parents until the autumn. In the southern districts where these Woodpeckers are found, their numbers are greatly increased in the winter by accessions from the North.Dr. Cooper found this species quite numerous, in September, in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe and the summits of the Sierra Nevada, above an altitude of six thousand feet. From thence this bird has a northern range chiefly on the east side of these mountains and of the Cascade Range. None were seen near the Lower Columbia. At the lake they were quite fearless, coming close to the hotel, and industriously rapping the trees in the evening and in the early morning. Farther north Dr. Cooper found them very wild, owing probably to their having been hunted by the Indians for their skins, which they consider very valuable. He noticed their burrows in low pine-trees near the lake, where he had no doubt they also raise their young. Dr. Cooper has always found them very silent birds, though in the spring they probably have more variety of calls. The only note he heard was a shrill, harsh, rattling cry, quite distinct from that of any other Woodpecker.The flight of this Woodpecker is described as rapid, gliding, and greatly undulated. Occasionally it will fly to quite a distance before it alights, uttering, from time to time, a loud shrill note.Professor Verrill says this bird is very common in Western Maine, in the spring, fall, and winter, or from the middle of October to the middle or end of March. It is not known to occur there in the summer. Near Calais a few are seen, and it is supposed to breed, but is not common. In Massachusetts it is only a rare and accidental visitant, occurring usually late inwinter or in March. Two were taken near Salem in November. It is also a rare winter visitant near Hamilton in Canada.Mr. Ridgway met with but a single individual of this species during his Western explorations. This was shot in February, near Carson City, Nevada; it was busily engaged in pecking upon the trunk of a large pine, and was perfectly silent.Mr. John K. Lord obtained a single specimen of this bird on the summit of the Cascade Mountains. It was late in September, and getting cold; the bird was flying restlessly from tree to tree, but not searching for insects. Both when on the wing and when clinging to a tree, it was continually uttering a shrill, plaintive cry. Its favorite tree is thePinus contorta, which grows at great altitudes. It is found chiefly on hill-tops, while in the valleys and lower plains it is replaced by thePicoides hirsutus.Eggs of this species were obtained by Professor Agassiz on the northern shore of Lake Superior. They were slightly ovate, nearly spherical, rounded at one end and abruptly pointed at the other, of a crystal whiteness, and measured .91 of an inch in length by .70 in breadth.An egg received from Mr. Krieghoff is small in proportion to the size of the bird, nearly spherical in form, and of a uniform dull-white color. It measures .92 of an inch in length by .76 in breadth.Picoides tridactylus,var.americanus,Brehm.THE WHITE-BACKED THREE-TOED WOODPECKER.Picus hirsutus,Vieillot,Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 68,pl. cxxiv(European specimen).—Wagler,Syst. Av.1827,No.27 (mixed withundulatus).—Aud.Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 184,pl. ccccxvii.—Ib.BirdsAmer. IV, 1842,pl. cclxix.—Nuttall,Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 622.Apternus hirsutus,Bon.List,Picoides hirsutus,Baird,Birds N. Am.1858, 98.—Samuels, 95.? Picus undulatus,Vieillot,Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 69 (based onPl. enl.553, fictitious species?)Picus undatus,Temm.Picus undosus,Cuv.R. A.1829, 451 (all based on same figure).Tridactylia undulata,Cab. & Hein.Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 28.Picus tridactylus,Sw.F. Bor. Am.1831, 311,pl. lvi.Picoides americanus,Brehm,Vögel Deutschlands, 1831, 195.—Malherbe,Mon.Picidæ,I, 176,pl. xvii, 36.—Sclater,Catal.—Gray,Cat. Br. Mus. III, 3, 4, 1868, 30.Apternus americanus,Swainson,Class. II, 1837, 306.Picus americanus,Sundevall,Consp. Av. Picin.1866, 15.Picoides dorsalis,Baird,Birds N. Am.1858, 100,pl. lxxxv, f.1.—Cooper,Orn. Cal.1, 1870 (underP. americanus).Tridactylia dorsalis,Cab. & Hein.Picus dorsalis,Sundevall,Consp.1866, 14.Sp. Char.Black above. The back markings of white, transverse in summer, and longitudinal in winter; these extend to the rump, which is sometimes almost wholly white. A white line from behind the eye, widening on the nape, and a broader one under the eye from the loral region, but not extending on the forehead; occiput and sides of head uniform black. Quills, but not coverts, spotted on both webs with white, seen on inner webs of inner secondaries. Under parts, including crissum, white; the sides, including axillars and lining of wing, banded transversely with black. Exposed portion of outer three tail-feathers white; that of third much less, and sometimes with a narrow tip of black. Upper tail-coverts sometimes tipped with white, and occasionally, but very rarely,banded with the same. Top of the head spotted, streaked, or suffused with white; the crown of the male with a yellow patch. Nasal bristles black, mixed with gray. Female with the whole top of head usually spotted with white, very rarely entirely black.Hab.Arctic regions of North America; southward in the Rocky Mountains to Fort Buchanan; northern border of the Eastern United States, in winter (Massachusetts,Maynard).This species varies considerably in its markings, especially in the amount of white above. The head is sometimes more coarsely spotted with white than in the average; very rarely are the white spots wanting, leaving merely the broad malar and interrupted post-ocular stripe. The rictal black stripe is sometimes much obscured by white. In typical specimens from the Hudson Bay and Labrador Provinces, which seem to be darkest, the feathers of the centre of the back have three transverse bars of white (one of them terminal), rather narrower than the intermediate black bars; the basal white ones disappearing both anteriorly and posteriorly, leaving but two. In specimens from the Mackenzie River district there is a greater development of white; the white bands being broader than the black, and sometimes extending along the shafts so as to reduce the black bars to pairs of spots. The next step is the disappearance of these spots on one side or the other, or on both, leaving the end of the feathers entirely white, especially anteriorly, where the back may have a longitudinal stripe of white, as inPicus villosus. Usually, however, in this extreme, the upper tail-coverts remain banded transversely. In all the specimens from the Rocky Mountains of the United States, especially Laramie Peak, this white back, unbarred except on the rump, is a constant character, and added to it we have a broad nuchal patch of white running into that of the back and connected with the white post-ocular stripe. The bands, too, on the sides of the body, are less distinct. It was to this state of plumage that the name ofP. dorsaliswas applied, in 1858, and although in view of the connecting links it may not be entitled to consideration as a distinct race, this tendency to a permanence of the longitudinal direction of the white markings above seems to be especially characteristic of the Rocky Mountain region, appearing only in winter birds from elsewhere. This same character prevails in all the Rocky Mountain specimens from more northern regions, including those from Fort Liard, and in only one not found in that region, namely,No.49,905, collected at Nulato by Mr. Dall. Here the middle of the back is very white, although the nuchal band is less distinct. Other specimens from that locality and the Yukon River generally, as also from Kodiak, distinctly show the transverse bars.In one specimen (29,126) from the Mackenzie River, all the upper tail-coverts are banded decidedly with white, and the wing-coverts spotted with the same. Even the central tail-feathers show white scallops. The back is, however, banded transversely very distinctly, not longitudinally.P. americanusin all stages of color is distinguished fromarcticusby the white along the middle of the back, the absence of distinct frontal whiteand black bands, more numerous spots of white on the head, etc. The inner webs of inner secondaries are banded with white, not uniform black. The maxillary black stripe is rather larger than the rictal white one, not smaller. The size is decidedly smaller. Females almost always have the top of head spotted with white instead of uniform black, which is the rule inarcticus.It is probable that the difference in the amount of white on the upper parts of this species is to some extent due to age and season, the winter specimens and the young showing it to the greatest degree. Still, however, there is a decided geographical relationship, as already indicated.This race ofP. tridactyluscan be easily distinguished from the European form of Northern and Alpine Europe by the tail-feathers; of these, the outer three are white (the rest black) as far as exposed, without any bands; the tip of the third being white only at the end. The supra-ocular white stripe is very narrow and scarcely appreciable; the crissum white and unbanded. The back is banded transversely in one variety, striped longitudinally in the other. InP. tridactylusthe outer two feathers on each side are white, banded with black; the outer with the bands regular and equal from base; the second black, except one or two terminal bands. The crissum is well banded with black; the back striped longitudinally with white; the supra-ocular white stripe almost as broad as the infra-ocular.P. crisoleucus, of Siberia, is similar to the last, but differs in white crissum, and from both species in the almost entire absence of dark bands on the sides, showing the Arctic maximum of white.We follow Sundevall in using the specific nameamericanus, Brehm, for this species, as being the first legitimately belonging to it.P. hirsutusof Vieillot, usually adopted, is based on a European bird, and agrees with it, though referred by the author to the American. The name ofundulatus, Vieillot, selected by Cabanis, is based on Buffon’s figure (Pl. enl.553) of a bird said to be from Cayenne, with four toes; the whole top of the head red from base of bill to end of occiput, with the edges of the dorsal feathers narrowly white, and with the three lateral tail-feathers regularly banded with black, tipped with red; the fourth, banded white and black on outer web, tipped with black. None of those features belong to the bird of Arctic America, and the markings answer, if to either, better to the European.Habits.This rare and interesting species, so far as has been ascertained, is nowhere a common or well-known bird. It is probably exclusively of Arctic residence, and only occasionally or very rarely is found so far south as Massachusetts. In the winter of 1836 I found a specimen exposed for sale in the Boston market, which was sent in alcohol to Mr. Audubon. Two specimens have been taken in Lynn, by Mr. Welch, in 1868. They occur, also, in Southern Wisconsin in the winter, where Mr. Kumlien has several times, in successive winters, obtained single individuals.Sir John Richardson states that this bird is to be met with in all the forests of spruce and fir lying between Lake Superior and the Arctic Sea, andthat it is the most common Woodpecker north of Great Slave Lake, whence it has frequently been sent to the Smithsonian Institution. It is said to greatly resembleP. villosusin habits, except that it seeks its food principally upon decaying trees of the pine tribe, in which it frequently makes holes large enough to bury itself. It is not migratory.GenusSPHYROPICUS,Baird.Pilumnus,Bon.Consp. Zygod. Ateneo Italiano, May, 1854. (TypeP. thyroideus) preoccupied in crustaceans.Sphyropicus,Baird,Birds N. Am.1858, 101. (Type,Picus varius,)Linn.,Coues,Pr. A. N. S.1866, 52 (anatomy).Cladoscopus,Cab. & Hein.Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 80. (Type,P. varius.)Illustration: Sphyropicus nuchalisSphyropicus nuchalis.20511♀Gen. Char.Bill as inPicus, but the lateral ridge, which is very prominent, running out distinctly to the commissure at about its middle, beyond which the bill is rounded without any angles at all. The culmen and gonys are very nearly straight, but slightly convex, the bill tapering rapidly to a point; the lateral outline concave to very near the slightly bevelled tip. Outer pair of toes longest; the hinder exterior rather longest; the inner posterior toe very short, less than the inner anterior without its claw. Wings long and pointed; the third, excluding the spurious, longest. Tail-feathers very broad, abruptly acuminate, with a very long linear tip. Tongue scarcely extensible.The genusSphyropicus, instituted in 1858, proves to be so strongly marked in its characters that Dr. Coues proposes to make it the type of a distinct subfamily,Sphyropicinæ(Pr. Phil. Acad.1866, 52). In addition to the peculiarities already indicated, there is a remarkable feature in the tongue, which, according to Dr. Coues, Dr. Hoy, Dr. Bryant, and others, is incapable of protrusion much beyond the tip of the bill, or not more than the third of an inch. Dr. Coues states that the apo-hyal and cerato-hyal elements of the hyoid bone do not reach back much beyond the tympano-maxillary articulation, instead of extending round, as inPicus, over the occiput to the top of the cranium, or even curving into an osseous groove around the orbit. The basihyals supporting the tongue are shorter and differently shaped. The tongue itself is short and flattened, with a superior longitudinal median groove and a corresponding inferior ridge; the tip is broad and flattened and obtuselyrounded, and with numerous long and soft bristly hairs. This is, of course, very different from the long, extensile, acutely pointed tongue of other Woodpeckers, with its tip armed with a few strong, sharp, short, recurved barbs.Dr. Hoy and Dr. Coues maintain that the food of these Woodpeckers consists mainly of the cambium or soft inner bark of trees, which is cut out in patches sometimes of several inches in extent, and usually producing square holes in the bark, not rounded ones. As may be supposed, such proceedings are very injurious to the trees, and justly call down the vengeance of their proprietors. This diet is varied with insects and fruits, when they can be had, but it is believed that cambium is their principal sustenance.This strongly marked genus appears to be composed of two sections and three well-defined species; the first being characterized by having the back variegated with whitish, and the jugulum with a sharply defined crescentic patch of black, though the latter is sometimes concealed by red, when the whole head and neck are of the latter color, and the sharply defined striped pattern of the cephalic regions, seen in the normal plumage, obliterated. Comparing the extreme conditions of plumage to be seen in this type, as in the females ofvariusand ofruber, the differences appear wide indeed, and few would entertain for a moment a suspicion of their specific identity; yet upon carefully examining a sufficiently large series of specimens, we find these extremes to be connected by an unbroken transition, and are thus led to view these different conditions as manifestations of a peculiar law principally affecting a certain color, which leads us irresistibly to the conclusion that the group which at first seemed to compose a section of the genus is in reality only an association of forms of specific identity. Beginning with the birds of the Atlantic region (S. varius), we find in this series the minimum amount of red; indeed, many adult females occur which lack this color entirely, having not only the whole throat white, but the entire pileum glossy-black; usually, however, the latter is crimson. In adult males from this region the front and crown are always crimson, sharply defined, and bordered laterally and posteriorly with glossy-black; and below the black occipital band is another of dirty white; the crimson of the throat is wholly confined between the continuous broad, black malar stripes, and there is no tinge of red on the auriculars; there is a broad, sharply defined stripe of white beginning with the nasal tufts, passing beneath the black loral and auricular stripe, and continuing downward into the yellowish of the abdomen, giving the large, glossy-black pectoral area a sharply defined outline; the dirty whitish nuchal band is continued forward beneath the black occipital crescent to above the middle of the eye. The pattern just described will be found in ninety-nine out of a hundred specimens from the Eastern Province of North America (also the West Indies and whole of Mexico); but a single adult male, from Carlisle,Penn.(No.12,071, W. M. Baird), has the whitish nuchal band distinctly tinged with red, though differing inthis respect only, while an adult female, from Washington, D. C. (No.12,260, C. Drexler), has the lower part of the throat much mixed with red.Taking next the specimens from the Rocky Mountains and Middle Province of the United States (S. nuchalis), we find thatallthe specimens possessboththese additional amounts of the red, there being always a red, instead of dirty-white, nuchal crescent, while in the female the lower part of the throat is always more or less red; in addition, the male has the red of the throat reaching laterally to the white stripe, thus interrupting the black malar one, which is always unbroken in the eastern form; and in addition, the auriculars are frequently mixed with red. Proceeding towards the Columbia River, we find the red increasing, or escaping the limits to which it is confined in the normal pattern, staining the white and black areas in different places, and tingeing the whitish which borders the black pectoral area.Lastly, in the series from the Pacific coast (S. ruber), we find the whole normal pattern rendered scarcely definable—sometimes entirely obliterated—by the extension of the red, which covers continuously the whole head, neck, and breast; but nearly always the normal pattern may be traced, the feathers of the normally black areas being dusky beneath the surface, and those of the usual white stripes very white for the concealed portion. Usually, in this form, the red of the breast covers only the black pectoral area; but in extreme specimens it reaches back to the middle of the body beneath, and stains the white spots of the back.With the increase of the red as we proceed westward, there is also a decrease in the amount of white above; thus, invariusthe whole back is irregularly spotted with dirty white and black,—the former predominating, the latter most conspicuous as a medial, broken broad stripe,—and the lateral tail-feathers are much variegated by white spots. Innuchalisthe back is mostly unbroken glossy-black, with two parallelnarrowstripes of white converging at their lower ends; and the lateral tail-feather is almost wholly black, having merely a narrow white border toward the end.S. ruberis most likenuchalis, but has the white still more restricted.Invariusthe bill is dark brown, innuchalisit is deep black, and inruberwax-brown. Invariusthe yellow of the lower parts is deepest, innuchalisjust appreciable.Species and Varieties.A.Wing with a white patch on the middle and greater coverts. Markings along the sides with a longitudinal tendency.1.S. varius.Back variegated medially with brownish-white; secondaries with transverse rows of white spots.White and black stripes on side of head sharply defined, as is also the black pectoral crescent. Red confined to isolated patches,—two large ones, one on the crown and one on the throat; when there is more, only a tinge on the auriculars, and a crescent on nape.Crown sometimes glossy black without a trace of red on the female; no tinge of scarlet on the nape. Red of the throat entirely confinedwithin the broad, continuous black maxillary stripe.Femalewith the throat wholly white.Hab.Eastern Province North America, south in winter into West Indies, and over whole of Mexico, to Guatemala …var.varius.Crown always red in adult. A nuchal crescent of scarlet in both sexes. Red of the throat not confined by the black maxillary stripe, which is interrupted by it in the middle, allowing the red to touch the white stripe; a tinge of red on the auriculars.Femalealways with more or less red on lower part of the throat.Hab.Rocky Mountains and Middle Province of United States …var.nuchalis.White and black stripes on side of head obsolete, as is also the black pectoral crescent, caused by being overspread by a continuous red wash extending over whole head, neck, and breast.Whole head, neck, and breast red, with the light and dark stripes of the normal pattern only faintly traceable. Sexes similar.Hab.Pacific Province of United States, north to British Columbia …var.ruber.2.S. williamsoni.Back unvariegated; secondaries without bands of white spots.Whole crown and upper parts (except lower part of rump and upper tail-coverts, and wing-patch), a stripe on side of head, a broader one on side of the throat, and the whole jugulum and sides of the breast, unbroken glossy-black; abdomen bright lemon-yellow.Malewith a narrow stripe of scarlet on middle of the throat.Femalewith it white.Younglike the adult.Hab.Western Province of United States.B.Wing without a white patch. Markings on sides regularly transverse.3.S. thyroideus.Head all round light brown; abdomen bright lemon-yellow; rump and upper tail-coverts white. Entire upper surface, with sides, regularly and continuously barred with black and white, in nearly equal amount; the black bars usually coalesced on the jugulum into a more or less extensive patch.Malewith the throat tinged medially with scarlet.Femalewithout any red.Hab.Western Province of United States.
Illustration: Picus albolarvatusPicus albolarvatus.
Picus albolarvatus.
Sp. Char.Fourth and fifth quills equal and longest; tip of first equidistant between sixth and seventh. Entirely bluish-black, excepting the head and neck, and the outer edges of the primaries (except outermost), and the concealed bases of all the quills, which are white. Length, about 9.00; wing, 5.25. Male with a narrow crescent of red on the occiput.
Hab.Cascade Mountains of Oregon and southward into California. Sierra Nevada.
Habits.This very plainly marked Woodpecker, formerly considered very rare, is now known to be abundant in the mountains of Northern California and Nevada, as also in the mountain-ranges of Washington Territory and Oregon. Dr. Cooper found it quite common near the summits of the Sierra Nevada, latitude 39°, in September, 1863, and procured three specimens. Three years previously he had met with it at Fort Dalles, Columbia River. He thinks that its chief range of distribution will be found to be between those two points. He also found it as far north as Fort Colville, in the northern part of Washington Territory, latitude 49°. He characterizes it as a rather silent bird.
Dr. Newberry only met with this bird among the Cascade Mountains, in Oregon, where he did not find it common.
Mr. J. G. Bell, who first discovered this species, in the vicinity of Sutter’s Mills, in California, on the American River, represents it as frequenting the higher branches of the pines, keeping almost out of gunshot range. Active and restless in its movements, it uttered at rare intervals a sharp and clear note, while busily pursuing its search for food.
Mr. John K. Lord states that the only place in which he saw this very rare bird was in the open timbered country about the Colville Valley and Spokan River. He has observed that this Woodpecker almost invariably haunts woods of thePinus ponderosa, and never retires into the thick damp forest. It arrives in small numbers at Colville, in April, and disappears again in October and November, or as soon as the snow begins to fall. Although he did not succeed in obtaining its eggs, he saw a pair nesting in the month of May in a hole bored in the branch of a very tall pine-tree. It seldom flies far, but darts from tree to tree with a short jerking flight, and always, while flying, utters a sharp, clear, chirping cry. Mr. Ridgway found it to be common in the pine forests of the Sierra Nevada, in the region of the Donner Lake Pass. It was first observed in July, at an altitude of about five thousand feet, on the western slope of that range, where it was seen playing about the tops of the tallest dead pines. On various occasions, at all seasons, it was afterwards found to be quite plentiful on the eastern slope, in the neighborhood of Carson City, Nevada. Its habits and manners are described as much like those of theP. harrisi, but it is of a livelier and more restless disposition. Its notes have some resemblance to those of that species, but are of a more rattling character. It is easily recognized, when seen, by its strikingly peculiar plumage.
GenusPICOIDES,Lacep.
Picoides,Lacep.Mem. Inst.1799. (Type,Picus tridactylus.)
Tridactylia,Steph.Shaw,Gen. Zoöl.1815.
Apternus,Sw.F. B. A. II, 1831, 311.
Illustration: Picoides arcticusPicoides arcticus.39143♂
Picoides arcticus.39143♂
Gen. Char.Bill about as long as the head, very much depressed at the base; the outlines nearly straight; the lateral ridge at its base much nearer the commissure than the culmen, so as to bring the large, rather linear nostrils close to the edge of the commissure. The gonys very long, equal to the distance from the nostrils to the tip of the bill. Feet with only three toes, the first or inner hinder one being wanting; the outer lateral a little longer than the inner, but slightly exceeded by the hind toe, which is about equal to the tarsus. Wings very long, reaching beyond the middle of the tail, the tip of the first quill between those of sixth and seventh. Color black above, with a broad patch of yellow on the crown; white beneath, transversely banded on the sides. Quills, but not wing-coverts, with round spots. Lateral tail-feathers white, without bands on exposed portion, except in European specimens.
The peculiarities of this genus consist in the absence of the inner hind toe and the great depression of the bill. The figure above fails to represent the median ridge of the bill as viewed from above.
Common Characters.The American species ofPicoidesagree in being black above and white beneath; the crown with a square yellow patch in the male; a white stripe behind the eye, and another from the loral region beneath the eye; the quills (but not the coverts) spotted with white; the sides banded transversely with black. The diagnostic characters (including the European species) are asfollows:—
Species and Varieties.
P. arcticus.Dorsal region without white markings; no supraloral white stripe or streak, nor nuchal band of white. Four middle tail-feathers wholly black; the next pair with the basal half black; the outer two pairs almost wholly white, without any dark bars. Entire sides heavily banded with black; crissum immaculate; sides of the breast continuously black.♂. Crown with a patch of yellow, varying from lemon, through gamboge, to orange, and not surrounded by any whitish markings or suffusion.♀. Crown lustrous black, without any yellow, and destitute of white streaks or other markings. Wing, 4.85 to 5.25; tail, 3.60; culmen, 1.40 to 1.55.Hab.Northern parts of North America. In winter just within the northern border of the United States, but farther south on high mountain-ranges.
P. tridactylus.Dorsal region with white markings, of various amount and direction; a more or less distinct supraloral white streak or stripe, and a more or less apparent nuchal band of the same. Four to six middle tail-feathers entirely black; when six, the remainder are white, with distinct black bars to their ends; when four, they are white without any black bars, except occasionally a few toward the base. Sides always with black streaks or markings, but they are sometimes very sparse; crissum banded with black, or immaculate; sides of the breast not continuously black.♂. Crown with a patch of gamboge, amber, or sulphur-yellow, surrounded by a whitish suffusion or markings.♀. Crown without any yellow, but distinctly streaked, speckled, or suffused with whitish (very seldom plain black).
a.Six middle tail-feathers wholly black. Europe and Asia.
Sides and crissum heavily barred with black (black bars about as wide as the white ones).
Back usually transversely spotted with white; occasionally longitudinally striped with the same in Scandinavian examples. Wing, 4.80 to 5.10; tail, 3.80 to 4.00; culmen, 1.20 to 1.35.Hab.Europe …var.tridactylus.[127]
Sides and crissum almost free from black bars; black bars on the outer tail-feathers very much narrower than the white.
Back always (?) striped longitudinally with white. Wing, 4.70 to 4.75; tail, 3.65 to 3.90; culmen, 1.20 to 1.35.Hab.Siberia and Northern Russia …var.crissoleucus.[128]
b.Four middle tail-feathers, only, wholly black. North America.
Sides heavily barred with black, but crissum without bars, except beneath the surface. Three outer tail-feathers without black bars, except sometimes on the basal portion of the inner webs. Wing, 4.40 to 5.10; tail, 3.40 to 3.70; culmen, 1.10 to 1.25.
Back transversely spotted or barred with white.Hab.Hudson’s Bay region; south in winter to northern border of Eastern United States …var.americanus.
Back longitudinally striped with white at all seasons.Hab.Rocky Mountains; north to Alaska …var.dorsalis.
Picoides arcticus,Gray.
THE BLACK-BACKED THREE-TOED WOODPECKER.
Picus (Apternus) arcticus,Sw.F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 313.Apternus arcticus,Bp.List, 1838.—Ib.Consp.1850, 139.—Newberry,Zoöl. Cal. and Oreg. Route, 91,Rep. P. R. R. Surv. VI, 1857.Picus arcticus,Aud.Syn.1839, 182.—Ib.BirdsAmer. VI, 1842, 266,pl. cclxviii.—Nuttall,Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 691.—Sundevall,Consp. I, 1866, 15.Picus tridactylus,Bon.Am. Orn. II, 1828, 14,pl. xiv, f.2.—Aud.Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 198,pl. cxxxii.Tridactylia arctica,Cab. & Hein.Picoides arcticus,Gray,Gen.—Baird,Birds N. Am.1858, 98.—Lord,Pr. R. Art. Inst.Woolwich,IV, 1864, 112 (Cascade Mountains).—Cooper,Pr. Cal. Ac. Sc.1868 (Lake Tahoe and Sierra Nevada).—Samuels, 94.—Cooper,Orn. Cal.1, 1870, 384.
Illustration: Picoides arcticusPicoides arcticus.
Picoides arcticus.
Sp. Char.Above entirely uniform glossy bluish-black; a square patch on the middle of the crown saffron-yellow, and a few white spots on the outer edges of both webs of the primary and secondary quills. Beneath white, on the sides of whole body, axillars, and inner wing-coverts banded transversely with black. Crissum white, with a few spots anteriorly. A narrow concealed white line from the eye a short distance backwards, and a white stripe from the extreme forehead (meeting anteriorly) under the eye, and down the sides of the neck, bordered below by a narrow stripe of black. Bristly feathers of the base of the bill brown; sometimes a few gray intermixed. Exposed portion of two outer tail-feathers (first and second) white; the third obliquely white at end, tipped with black. Sometimes these feathers with a narrow black tip.
Hab.Northern North America; south to northern borders of United States in winter. Massachusetts (Maynard,B. E. Mass., 1870, 129). Sierra Nevada, south to 39°. Lake Tahoe (Cooper); Carson City (Ridgway).
This species differs from the other American three-toed Woodpeckers chiefly in having the back entirely black. The white line from the eye is usually almost imperceptible, if not wanting entirely. Specimens vary very little; one from Slave Lake has a longer bill than usual, and the top of head more orange. The size of the vertex patch varies; sometimes the frontal whitish is inappreciable. None of the females before me have any white spots in the black of head, as in that ofamericanus.
The variations in this species are very slight, being chiefly in the shade of the yellow patch on the crown, which varies from a sulphur tint to a rich orange. Sometimes there is the faintest trace of a whitish post-ocular streak, but usually this is wholly absent. Western and Eastern examples appear to be identical.
Illustration: Color plate 50PLATEL.
PLATEL.
PLATEL.
Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 11.Picoides arcticus.♂Nova Scotia, 26923.
1.Picoides arcticus.♂Nova Scotia, 26923.
1.Picoides arcticus.♂Nova Scotia, 26923.
Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 22.Picoides americanus.♂New Brunswick, 39143.
2.Picoides americanus.♂New Brunswick, 39143.
2.Picoides americanus.♂New Brunswick, 39143.
Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 33.Picus nuttalli.♂Cal., 4482.
3.Picus nuttalli.♂Cal., 4482.
3.Picus nuttalli.♂Cal., 4482.
Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 44.Picus scalaris.♂Texas, 46804.
4.Picus scalaris.♂Texas, 46804.
4.Picus scalaris.♂Texas, 46804.
Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 55.Picus scalaris.♀Texas, 9933.
5.Picus scalaris.♀Texas, 9933.
5.Picus scalaris.♀Texas, 9933.
Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 66.Picus nuttalli.♀Cal., 5400.
6.Picus nuttalli.♀Cal., 5400.
6.Picus nuttalli.♀Cal., 5400.
Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 77.Picus albolarvatus.♂Cal., 16066.
7.Picus albolarvatus.♂Cal., 16066.
7.Picus albolarvatus.♂Cal., 16066.
Illustration: Color plate 50 detail 88.Picus albolarvatus♀Cal.
8.Picus albolarvatus♀Cal.
8.Picus albolarvatus♀Cal.
Habits.This species has a well-defined and extended distribution, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and from the northern portions of the United States to the extreme Arctic regions. In the United States it has been found as far south as Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio, but rarely; and, so far as I am aware, it is a winter visitant only to any but the extreme northern portions of the Union, except along the line of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Audubon says it occurs in Northern Massachusetts, and in all portions of Maine that are covered by forests of tall trees, where it constantly resides. He saw a few in the Great Pine Forest of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Bachman noticed several in the neighborhood of Niagara Falls, and was of the opinion that it breeds in the northern part of New York. The same writer describes the nesting-place of the Arctic Woodpecker as generally bored in the body of a sound tree, near its first large branches. He observed no particular choice as to the timber, having seen it in oaks, pines, etc. The nest, like that of most of this family, is worked out by both sexes, and requires fully a week for its completion. Its usual depth is from twenty to twenty-four inches. It is smooth and broad at the bottom, although so narrow at its entrance as to appear scarcely sufficient to enable one of the birds to enter it. The eggs are from four to six, rather rounded and pure white. Only one brood is raised in the season. The young follow their parents until the autumn. In the southern districts where these Woodpeckers are found, their numbers are greatly increased in the winter by accessions from the North.
Dr. Cooper found this species quite numerous, in September, in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe and the summits of the Sierra Nevada, above an altitude of six thousand feet. From thence this bird has a northern range chiefly on the east side of these mountains and of the Cascade Range. None were seen near the Lower Columbia. At the lake they were quite fearless, coming close to the hotel, and industriously rapping the trees in the evening and in the early morning. Farther north Dr. Cooper found them very wild, owing probably to their having been hunted by the Indians for their skins, which they consider very valuable. He noticed their burrows in low pine-trees near the lake, where he had no doubt they also raise their young. Dr. Cooper has always found them very silent birds, though in the spring they probably have more variety of calls. The only note he heard was a shrill, harsh, rattling cry, quite distinct from that of any other Woodpecker.
The flight of this Woodpecker is described as rapid, gliding, and greatly undulated. Occasionally it will fly to quite a distance before it alights, uttering, from time to time, a loud shrill note.
Professor Verrill says this bird is very common in Western Maine, in the spring, fall, and winter, or from the middle of October to the middle or end of March. It is not known to occur there in the summer. Near Calais a few are seen, and it is supposed to breed, but is not common. In Massachusetts it is only a rare and accidental visitant, occurring usually late inwinter or in March. Two were taken near Salem in November. It is also a rare winter visitant near Hamilton in Canada.
Mr. Ridgway met with but a single individual of this species during his Western explorations. This was shot in February, near Carson City, Nevada; it was busily engaged in pecking upon the trunk of a large pine, and was perfectly silent.
Mr. John K. Lord obtained a single specimen of this bird on the summit of the Cascade Mountains. It was late in September, and getting cold; the bird was flying restlessly from tree to tree, but not searching for insects. Both when on the wing and when clinging to a tree, it was continually uttering a shrill, plaintive cry. Its favorite tree is thePinus contorta, which grows at great altitudes. It is found chiefly on hill-tops, while in the valleys and lower plains it is replaced by thePicoides hirsutus.
Eggs of this species were obtained by Professor Agassiz on the northern shore of Lake Superior. They were slightly ovate, nearly spherical, rounded at one end and abruptly pointed at the other, of a crystal whiteness, and measured .91 of an inch in length by .70 in breadth.
An egg received from Mr. Krieghoff is small in proportion to the size of the bird, nearly spherical in form, and of a uniform dull-white color. It measures .92 of an inch in length by .76 in breadth.
Picoides tridactylus,var.americanus,Brehm.
THE WHITE-BACKED THREE-TOED WOODPECKER.
Picus hirsutus,Vieillot,Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 68,pl. cxxiv(European specimen).—Wagler,Syst. Av.1827,No.27 (mixed withundulatus).—Aud.Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 184,pl. ccccxvii.—Ib.BirdsAmer. IV, 1842,pl. cclxix.—Nuttall,Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 622.Apternus hirsutus,Bon.List,Picoides hirsutus,Baird,Birds N. Am.1858, 98.—Samuels, 95.? Picus undulatus,Vieillot,Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 69 (based onPl. enl.553, fictitious species?)Picus undatus,Temm.Picus undosus,Cuv.R. A.1829, 451 (all based on same figure).Tridactylia undulata,Cab. & Hein.Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 28.Picus tridactylus,Sw.F. Bor. Am.1831, 311,pl. lvi.Picoides americanus,Brehm,Vögel Deutschlands, 1831, 195.—Malherbe,Mon.Picidæ,I, 176,pl. xvii, 36.—Sclater,Catal.—Gray,Cat. Br. Mus. III, 3, 4, 1868, 30.Apternus americanus,Swainson,Class. II, 1837, 306.Picus americanus,Sundevall,Consp. Av. Picin.1866, 15.Picoides dorsalis,Baird,Birds N. Am.1858, 100,pl. lxxxv, f.1.—Cooper,Orn. Cal.1, 1870 (underP. americanus).Tridactylia dorsalis,Cab. & Hein.Picus dorsalis,Sundevall,Consp.1866, 14.
Sp. Char.Black above. The back markings of white, transverse in summer, and longitudinal in winter; these extend to the rump, which is sometimes almost wholly white. A white line from behind the eye, widening on the nape, and a broader one under the eye from the loral region, but not extending on the forehead; occiput and sides of head uniform black. Quills, but not coverts, spotted on both webs with white, seen on inner webs of inner secondaries. Under parts, including crissum, white; the sides, including axillars and lining of wing, banded transversely with black. Exposed portion of outer three tail-feathers white; that of third much less, and sometimes with a narrow tip of black. Upper tail-coverts sometimes tipped with white, and occasionally, but very rarely,banded with the same. Top of the head spotted, streaked, or suffused with white; the crown of the male with a yellow patch. Nasal bristles black, mixed with gray. Female with the whole top of head usually spotted with white, very rarely entirely black.
Hab.Arctic regions of North America; southward in the Rocky Mountains to Fort Buchanan; northern border of the Eastern United States, in winter (Massachusetts,Maynard).
This species varies considerably in its markings, especially in the amount of white above. The head is sometimes more coarsely spotted with white than in the average; very rarely are the white spots wanting, leaving merely the broad malar and interrupted post-ocular stripe. The rictal black stripe is sometimes much obscured by white. In typical specimens from the Hudson Bay and Labrador Provinces, which seem to be darkest, the feathers of the centre of the back have three transverse bars of white (one of them terminal), rather narrower than the intermediate black bars; the basal white ones disappearing both anteriorly and posteriorly, leaving but two. In specimens from the Mackenzie River district there is a greater development of white; the white bands being broader than the black, and sometimes extending along the shafts so as to reduce the black bars to pairs of spots. The next step is the disappearance of these spots on one side or the other, or on both, leaving the end of the feathers entirely white, especially anteriorly, where the back may have a longitudinal stripe of white, as inPicus villosus. Usually, however, in this extreme, the upper tail-coverts remain banded transversely. In all the specimens from the Rocky Mountains of the United States, especially Laramie Peak, this white back, unbarred except on the rump, is a constant character, and added to it we have a broad nuchal patch of white running into that of the back and connected with the white post-ocular stripe. The bands, too, on the sides of the body, are less distinct. It was to this state of plumage that the name ofP. dorsaliswas applied, in 1858, and although in view of the connecting links it may not be entitled to consideration as a distinct race, this tendency to a permanence of the longitudinal direction of the white markings above seems to be especially characteristic of the Rocky Mountain region, appearing only in winter birds from elsewhere. This same character prevails in all the Rocky Mountain specimens from more northern regions, including those from Fort Liard, and in only one not found in that region, namely,No.49,905, collected at Nulato by Mr. Dall. Here the middle of the back is very white, although the nuchal band is less distinct. Other specimens from that locality and the Yukon River generally, as also from Kodiak, distinctly show the transverse bars.
In one specimen (29,126) from the Mackenzie River, all the upper tail-coverts are banded decidedly with white, and the wing-coverts spotted with the same. Even the central tail-feathers show white scallops. The back is, however, banded transversely very distinctly, not longitudinally.
P. americanusin all stages of color is distinguished fromarcticusby the white along the middle of the back, the absence of distinct frontal whiteand black bands, more numerous spots of white on the head, etc. The inner webs of inner secondaries are banded with white, not uniform black. The maxillary black stripe is rather larger than the rictal white one, not smaller. The size is decidedly smaller. Females almost always have the top of head spotted with white instead of uniform black, which is the rule inarcticus.
It is probable that the difference in the amount of white on the upper parts of this species is to some extent due to age and season, the winter specimens and the young showing it to the greatest degree. Still, however, there is a decided geographical relationship, as already indicated.
This race ofP. tridactyluscan be easily distinguished from the European form of Northern and Alpine Europe by the tail-feathers; of these, the outer three are white (the rest black) as far as exposed, without any bands; the tip of the third being white only at the end. The supra-ocular white stripe is very narrow and scarcely appreciable; the crissum white and unbanded. The back is banded transversely in one variety, striped longitudinally in the other. InP. tridactylusthe outer two feathers on each side are white, banded with black; the outer with the bands regular and equal from base; the second black, except one or two terminal bands. The crissum is well banded with black; the back striped longitudinally with white; the supra-ocular white stripe almost as broad as the infra-ocular.P. crisoleucus, of Siberia, is similar to the last, but differs in white crissum, and from both species in the almost entire absence of dark bands on the sides, showing the Arctic maximum of white.
We follow Sundevall in using the specific nameamericanus, Brehm, for this species, as being the first legitimately belonging to it.P. hirsutusof Vieillot, usually adopted, is based on a European bird, and agrees with it, though referred by the author to the American. The name ofundulatus, Vieillot, selected by Cabanis, is based on Buffon’s figure (Pl. enl.553) of a bird said to be from Cayenne, with four toes; the whole top of the head red from base of bill to end of occiput, with the edges of the dorsal feathers narrowly white, and with the three lateral tail-feathers regularly banded with black, tipped with red; the fourth, banded white and black on outer web, tipped with black. None of those features belong to the bird of Arctic America, and the markings answer, if to either, better to the European.
Habits.This rare and interesting species, so far as has been ascertained, is nowhere a common or well-known bird. It is probably exclusively of Arctic residence, and only occasionally or very rarely is found so far south as Massachusetts. In the winter of 1836 I found a specimen exposed for sale in the Boston market, which was sent in alcohol to Mr. Audubon. Two specimens have been taken in Lynn, by Mr. Welch, in 1868. They occur, also, in Southern Wisconsin in the winter, where Mr. Kumlien has several times, in successive winters, obtained single individuals.
Sir John Richardson states that this bird is to be met with in all the forests of spruce and fir lying between Lake Superior and the Arctic Sea, andthat it is the most common Woodpecker north of Great Slave Lake, whence it has frequently been sent to the Smithsonian Institution. It is said to greatly resembleP. villosusin habits, except that it seeks its food principally upon decaying trees of the pine tribe, in which it frequently makes holes large enough to bury itself. It is not migratory.
GenusSPHYROPICUS,Baird.
Pilumnus,Bon.Consp. Zygod. Ateneo Italiano, May, 1854. (TypeP. thyroideus) preoccupied in crustaceans.
Sphyropicus,Baird,Birds N. Am.1858, 101. (Type,Picus varius,)Linn.,Coues,Pr. A. N. S.1866, 52 (anatomy).
Cladoscopus,Cab. & Hein.Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 80. (Type,P. varius.)
Illustration: Sphyropicus nuchalisSphyropicus nuchalis.20511♀
Sphyropicus nuchalis.20511♀
Gen. Char.Bill as inPicus, but the lateral ridge, which is very prominent, running out distinctly to the commissure at about its middle, beyond which the bill is rounded without any angles at all. The culmen and gonys are very nearly straight, but slightly convex, the bill tapering rapidly to a point; the lateral outline concave to very near the slightly bevelled tip. Outer pair of toes longest; the hinder exterior rather longest; the inner posterior toe very short, less than the inner anterior without its claw. Wings long and pointed; the third, excluding the spurious, longest. Tail-feathers very broad, abruptly acuminate, with a very long linear tip. Tongue scarcely extensible.
The genusSphyropicus, instituted in 1858, proves to be so strongly marked in its characters that Dr. Coues proposes to make it the type of a distinct subfamily,Sphyropicinæ(Pr. Phil. Acad.1866, 52). In addition to the peculiarities already indicated, there is a remarkable feature in the tongue, which, according to Dr. Coues, Dr. Hoy, Dr. Bryant, and others, is incapable of protrusion much beyond the tip of the bill, or not more than the third of an inch. Dr. Coues states that the apo-hyal and cerato-hyal elements of the hyoid bone do not reach back much beyond the tympano-maxillary articulation, instead of extending round, as inPicus, over the occiput to the top of the cranium, or even curving into an osseous groove around the orbit. The basihyals supporting the tongue are shorter and differently shaped. The tongue itself is short and flattened, with a superior longitudinal median groove and a corresponding inferior ridge; the tip is broad and flattened and obtuselyrounded, and with numerous long and soft bristly hairs. This is, of course, very different from the long, extensile, acutely pointed tongue of other Woodpeckers, with its tip armed with a few strong, sharp, short, recurved barbs.
Dr. Hoy and Dr. Coues maintain that the food of these Woodpeckers consists mainly of the cambium or soft inner bark of trees, which is cut out in patches sometimes of several inches in extent, and usually producing square holes in the bark, not rounded ones. As may be supposed, such proceedings are very injurious to the trees, and justly call down the vengeance of their proprietors. This diet is varied with insects and fruits, when they can be had, but it is believed that cambium is their principal sustenance.
This strongly marked genus appears to be composed of two sections and three well-defined species; the first being characterized by having the back variegated with whitish, and the jugulum with a sharply defined crescentic patch of black, though the latter is sometimes concealed by red, when the whole head and neck are of the latter color, and the sharply defined striped pattern of the cephalic regions, seen in the normal plumage, obliterated. Comparing the extreme conditions of plumage to be seen in this type, as in the females ofvariusand ofruber, the differences appear wide indeed, and few would entertain for a moment a suspicion of their specific identity; yet upon carefully examining a sufficiently large series of specimens, we find these extremes to be connected by an unbroken transition, and are thus led to view these different conditions as manifestations of a peculiar law principally affecting a certain color, which leads us irresistibly to the conclusion that the group which at first seemed to compose a section of the genus is in reality only an association of forms of specific identity. Beginning with the birds of the Atlantic region (S. varius), we find in this series the minimum amount of red; indeed, many adult females occur which lack this color entirely, having not only the whole throat white, but the entire pileum glossy-black; usually, however, the latter is crimson. In adult males from this region the front and crown are always crimson, sharply defined, and bordered laterally and posteriorly with glossy-black; and below the black occipital band is another of dirty white; the crimson of the throat is wholly confined between the continuous broad, black malar stripes, and there is no tinge of red on the auriculars; there is a broad, sharply defined stripe of white beginning with the nasal tufts, passing beneath the black loral and auricular stripe, and continuing downward into the yellowish of the abdomen, giving the large, glossy-black pectoral area a sharply defined outline; the dirty whitish nuchal band is continued forward beneath the black occipital crescent to above the middle of the eye. The pattern just described will be found in ninety-nine out of a hundred specimens from the Eastern Province of North America (also the West Indies and whole of Mexico); but a single adult male, from Carlisle,Penn.(No.12,071, W. M. Baird), has the whitish nuchal band distinctly tinged with red, though differing inthis respect only, while an adult female, from Washington, D. C. (No.12,260, C. Drexler), has the lower part of the throat much mixed with red.
Taking next the specimens from the Rocky Mountains and Middle Province of the United States (S. nuchalis), we find thatallthe specimens possessboththese additional amounts of the red, there being always a red, instead of dirty-white, nuchal crescent, while in the female the lower part of the throat is always more or less red; in addition, the male has the red of the throat reaching laterally to the white stripe, thus interrupting the black malar one, which is always unbroken in the eastern form; and in addition, the auriculars are frequently mixed with red. Proceeding towards the Columbia River, we find the red increasing, or escaping the limits to which it is confined in the normal pattern, staining the white and black areas in different places, and tingeing the whitish which borders the black pectoral area.
Lastly, in the series from the Pacific coast (S. ruber), we find the whole normal pattern rendered scarcely definable—sometimes entirely obliterated—by the extension of the red, which covers continuously the whole head, neck, and breast; but nearly always the normal pattern may be traced, the feathers of the normally black areas being dusky beneath the surface, and those of the usual white stripes very white for the concealed portion. Usually, in this form, the red of the breast covers only the black pectoral area; but in extreme specimens it reaches back to the middle of the body beneath, and stains the white spots of the back.
With the increase of the red as we proceed westward, there is also a decrease in the amount of white above; thus, invariusthe whole back is irregularly spotted with dirty white and black,—the former predominating, the latter most conspicuous as a medial, broken broad stripe,—and the lateral tail-feathers are much variegated by white spots. Innuchalisthe back is mostly unbroken glossy-black, with two parallelnarrowstripes of white converging at their lower ends; and the lateral tail-feather is almost wholly black, having merely a narrow white border toward the end.S. ruberis most likenuchalis, but has the white still more restricted.
Invariusthe bill is dark brown, innuchalisit is deep black, and inruberwax-brown. Invariusthe yellow of the lower parts is deepest, innuchalisjust appreciable.
Species and Varieties.
A.Wing with a white patch on the middle and greater coverts. Markings along the sides with a longitudinal tendency.
1.S. varius.Back variegated medially with brownish-white; secondaries with transverse rows of white spots.
White and black stripes on side of head sharply defined, as is also the black pectoral crescent. Red confined to isolated patches,—two large ones, one on the crown and one on the throat; when there is more, only a tinge on the auriculars, and a crescent on nape.
Crown sometimes glossy black without a trace of red on the female; no tinge of scarlet on the nape. Red of the throat entirely confinedwithin the broad, continuous black maxillary stripe.Femalewith the throat wholly white.Hab.Eastern Province North America, south in winter into West Indies, and over whole of Mexico, to Guatemala …var.varius.
Crown always red in adult. A nuchal crescent of scarlet in both sexes. Red of the throat not confined by the black maxillary stripe, which is interrupted by it in the middle, allowing the red to touch the white stripe; a tinge of red on the auriculars.Femalealways with more or less red on lower part of the throat.Hab.Rocky Mountains and Middle Province of United States …var.nuchalis.
White and black stripes on side of head obsolete, as is also the black pectoral crescent, caused by being overspread by a continuous red wash extending over whole head, neck, and breast.
Whole head, neck, and breast red, with the light and dark stripes of the normal pattern only faintly traceable. Sexes similar.Hab.Pacific Province of United States, north to British Columbia …var.ruber.
2.S. williamsoni.Back unvariegated; secondaries without bands of white spots.
Whole crown and upper parts (except lower part of rump and upper tail-coverts, and wing-patch), a stripe on side of head, a broader one on side of the throat, and the whole jugulum and sides of the breast, unbroken glossy-black; abdomen bright lemon-yellow.Malewith a narrow stripe of scarlet on middle of the throat.Femalewith it white.Younglike the adult.Hab.Western Province of United States.
B.Wing without a white patch. Markings on sides regularly transverse.
3.S. thyroideus.Head all round light brown; abdomen bright lemon-yellow; rump and upper tail-coverts white. Entire upper surface, with sides, regularly and continuously barred with black and white, in nearly equal amount; the black bars usually coalesced on the jugulum into a more or less extensive patch.Malewith the throat tinged medially with scarlet.Femalewithout any red.Hab.Western Province of United States.