Chapter XXXIII: Section IV: Crown rufous; body above, olive-green (24)

Mr. Lord thinks that this Woodpecker is not to be met with west of the Cascade Mountains, but says it is very often found between the Cascades and the Rocky Mountains, where it frequents the open timber. The habits and modes of flight of this bird, he states, are not the least like a Woodpecker’s. It flies with a heavy flapping motion, much like a Jay, feeds a good deal on the ground, and chases insects on the wing like a Shrike or a Kingbird. Whilst mating they assemble in large numbers, and keep up a continual, loud, chattering noise. They arrive at Colville in April, begin nesting in May, and leave again in October. The nest is in a hole in a dead pine-tree, usually at a considerable height from the ground.

Dr. Coues says this bird is very common at Fort Whipple, in Arizona, where it remained in moult until November.

Mr. J. A. Allen found this the most numerous of the _Picidæ_ in Colorado Territory. He also states that it differs considerably in its habits from all the other Woodpeckers. He frequently noticed it rising high into the air almost vertically, and to a great height, apparently in pursuit of insects, and descending again as abruptly, to repeat the same manœuvre. It was met with by Mr. Ridgway in the Sacramento Valley, along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, and in the East Humboldt Mountains. In the first-mentioned locality it was the most abundant Woodpecker, and inhabited the scattered oaks of the plains. In the second region it was very abundant—perhaps more so than any other species—among the scattered pines along the very base of the eastern slope; and in the last-mentioned place was observed on a few occasions among the tall aspens bordering the streams in the lower portions of the cañons. In its habits it is described as approaching most closely to our common Red-headed Woodpecker (_M. erythrocephalus_), but possessing many very distinctive peculiarities. In the character of its notes it quite closely approximates to our common Redhead, but they are weaker and of a more twittering character; and in its lively playful disposition it even exceeds it. It has a very peculiar and characteristic habit of ascending high into the air, and taking a strange, floating flight, seemingly laborious, as if struggling against the wind, and then descending in broad circles to the trees.

The eggs are more spherical than are usually those of the _Colaptes auratus_, are of a beautiful crystalline whiteness, and measure 1.10 inches in length and .92 of an inch in breadth.

Melanerpes erythrocephalus, SWAINSON.

RED-HEADED WOODPECKER.

_Picus erythrocephalus_, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 174.—VIEILLOT,
Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 60, pl. cxii, cxiii.—WILSON, Am. Orn.
I, 1810, 142, pl. ix, fig. 1.—WAGLER, Syst. Av. 1827, No.
14.—IB. Isis, 1829, 518 (young).—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832,
141; V, 536, pl. xxvii.—IB. Birds America, IV, 1842, 274, pl.
cclxxi.—MAX. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 419. _Melanerpes
erythrocephalus_, SW. F. B. A. II, 1831, 316.—BON. List,
1838.—IB. Conspectus, 1850, 115.—GAMBEL, J. Ac. Nat. Sc. Ph.
2d ser. I, 1847, 55.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 113.—SCL. Cat.
1862, 340.—SAMUELS, 102.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870,
402.—ALLEN, B. E. Fla. 307. _Picus obscurus_, GM. I, 1788, 429
(young).—_Red-headed Woodpecker_, PENNANT, KALM, LATHAM.
_White-rumped Woodpecker_, LATHAM.

SP. CHAR. Head and neck all round crimson-red, margined by a narrow crescent of black on the upper part of the breast. Back, primary quills, and tail bluish-black. Under parts generally, a broad band across the middle of the wing, and the rump, white. The female is not different. Length, about 9.75; wing, 5.50. Bill bluish-white, darker terminally; iris chestnut; feet olive-gray. Young without any red, the head and neck being grayish streaked with dusky; breast with an ashy tinge, and streaked sparsely with dusky; secondaries with two or three bands of black; dorsal region clouded with grayish.

HAB. Eastern Province of United States to base of Rocky Mountains, sometimes straggling westward to coast of California (GAMBEL). Salt Lake City, Utah (RIDGWAY). Other localities: Nueces to Brazos, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 469, breeds).

Western specimens frequently have the abdomen strongly tinged with salmon-red, or orange-red, and are generally more deeply colored than eastern.

HABITS. The Red-headed Woodpecker is one of the most familiar birds of this family, and ranges over a wide extent of territory. Excepting where it has been exterminated by the persecutions of indiscriminate destroyers, it is everywhere a very abundant species. Once common, it is now rarely met with in the neighborhood of Boston, though in the western part of Massachusetts it is still to be found. In the collections of the Smithsonian Institution are specimens from Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, the Indian Territory, etc. Sir John Richardson speaks of it as ranging in summer as far north as the northern shores of Lake Huron. He also remarks that in the Hudson Bay Museum there is a specimen from the banks of the Columbia River. Dr. Gambel, in his paper on the birds of California, states that he saw many of them in a belt of oak timber near the Mission of St. Gabriel. As, however, Dr. Heermann did not meet with it in California, and as no other collector has obtained specimens in that State, this is probably a mistake. With the exception of Dr. Woodhouse, who speaks of having found this species in the Indian Territory and in Texas, it is not mentioned by any of the government exploring parties. It may therefore be assigned a range extending, in summer, as far north as Labrador, and westward to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Throughout the year it is a permanent resident only of the more southern States, where it is, however, much less abundant in summer than it is in Pennsylvania.

Wilson, at the time of his writing (1808), speaks of finding several of the nests of this Woodpecker within the boundaries of the then city of Philadelphia, two of them being in buttonwood-trees and one in the decayed limb of an elm. The parent birds made regular excursions to the woods beyond the Schuylkill, and preserved a silence and circumspection in visiting their nest entirely unlike their habits in their wilder places of residence. The species is altogether migratory, visiting the Middle and Northern States early in May and leaving in October. It begins the construction of its nest almost immediately after its first appearance, as with other members of its family, by excavations made in the trunk or larger limbs of trees, depositing six white eggs on the bare wood. The cavities for their nests are made almost exclusively in dead wood, rarely, if ever, in the living portion of the tree. In Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, and the Carolinas, they have two broods in a season, but farther north than this they rarely raise more than one. Their eggs are usually six in number, and, like all the eggs of this family, are pure white and translucent when fresh. They vary a little in their shape, but are usually slightly more oval and less spherical than those of several other species. Mr. Nuttall speaks of the eggs of this bird as being said to be marked at the larger end with reddish spots. I have never met with any thus marked, and as Mr. Nuttall does not give it as from his own observations I have no doubt that it is a mistake. Mr. Paine, of Randolph, Vt., writes that he has only seen a single specimen of this Woodpecker in that part of Vermont, while on the western side of the Green Mountains they are said to be very common. He adds that it is a tradition among his older neighbors that these Woodpeckers were formerly everywhere known throughout all portions of the State.

Mr. Ridgway saw a single individual of this species in the outskirts of Salt Lake City, in July, 1869.

Their eggs vary both in size and in shape, from a spherical to an oblong-oval, the latter being the more usual. Their length varies from 1.10 to 1.15 inches, and their breadth from .80 to .90 of an inch.

Melanerpes formicivorus, var. formicivorus, BONAP.

CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER.

_Picus formicivorus_, SWAINSON, Birds Mex. in Philos. Mag. I, 1827,
439 (Mexico).—VIGORS, Zoöl. Blossom, 1839, 23
(Monterey).—NUTTALL, Man. I, 2d ed. 1840. _Melanerpes
formicivorus_, BP. Conspectus, 1850, 115.—HEERMANN, J. A. N.
Sc. Phil. 2d series, II, 1853, 270.—CASSIN, Illust. II, 1853,
11, pl. ii.—NEWBERRY, Zoöl. Cal. & Oregon Route, 90, P. R. R.
Surv. VI, 1857.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1868, 114.—SUMICHRAST,
Mem. Bost. Soc. I, 1865, 562 (correcting an error of
Saussure).—CASSIN, Pr. A. N. S. 63, 328.—HEERMANN, P. R. R.
X, 58 (nesting).—BAIRD, Rep. M. Bound. II, Birds, 6.—SCLATER,
Pr. Z. S. 1858, 305 (Oaxaca).—IB. Ibis, 137 (Honduras).—CAB.
Jour. 1862, 322 (Costa Rica).—COUES, Pr. A. N. S. 1866,
55.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 403. _Picus melanopogon_,
TEMMINCK, Pl. Color. IV, (1829?) pl. ccccli.—WAGLER, Isis,
1829, v, 515.—SUNDEVALL, Consp. 51.

SP. CHAR. Fourth quill longest, third a little shorter. Above and on the anterior half of the body, glossy bluish or greenish black; the top of the head and a short occipital crest red. A white patch on the forehead, connecting with a broad crescentic collar on the upper part of the neck by a narrow isthmus, white tinged with sulphur-yellow. Belly, rump, bases of primaries, and inner edges of the outer quills, white. Tail-feathers uniform black. Female with the red confined to the occipital crest, the rest replaced by greenish-black; the three patches white, black, and red, very sharply defined, and about equal. Length about 9.50; wing, 6.00; tail, 3.75.

HAB. Pacific Coast region of the United States and south; in Northern Mexico, eastward almost to the Gulf of Mexico; also on the Upper Rio Grande; south to Costa Rica. Localities: Oaxaca (SCL. P. Z. S. 1858, 305); Cordova (SCL. 1856, 307); Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 137); Honduras (SCL. Cat. 341); Costa Rica (CAB. J. 1862, 322); W. Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 55).

In most specimens one or two red feathers may be detected in the black of the breast just behind the sulphur-yellow crescent. The white of the breast is streaked with black; the posterior portion of the black of the breast and anterior belly streaked with white. The white of the wing only shows externally as a patch at the base of the primaries.

Dr. Coues calls attention to extraordinary differences in the color of the iris, which varies from white to red, blue, yellow, ochraceous, or brown. A mixture of blue, he thinks, indicates immaturity, and a reddish tinge the full spring coloration.

The male of this species has a white forehead extending a little backwards of the anterior edge of the eye, the rest of the top of head to the nape being red. The female has the white forehead, and a quadrate occipito-nuchal red patch, a black band about as broad as the white one separating the latter from the occipital red. The length of the two anterior bands together is decidedly greater than that of the posterior red. In both sexes the jugulum is entirely and continuously black. Anteriorly (generally with a red spot in its anterior edge) and on the feathers of its posterior border only are these elongated white spots, on each side the shaft, the feathers of the breast being streaked centrally with black. The inner webs of the secondaries have an elongated continuous patch of white along their internal edge, with a very slight, almost inappreciable, border of black; this white only very rarely converted partly or entirely into quadrate spots, and that never on the innermost quills marked with white. Specimens from California are very similar to those from the Rocky Mountains and the Rio Grande Valley, except, perhaps, in being larger, with longer and straighter bill.

In _M. flavigula_ from Bogota, the male has the head marked with the red, black, and white (the red much less in extent, however) of the female _M. formicivorus_, while the female has no red whatever. All, or nearly all, the feathers of the jugulum have the two white spots, and (as pointed out by Reichenbach) the white of the inner webs of the inner quills is entirely converted into a series of non-confluent quadrate spots. The black streaks on the sides and behind appear to be of greater magnitude, and more uniformly distributed. In both species all the tail-feathers are perfectly black.

A Guatemalan bird, received from Mr. Salvin as _M. formicivorus_,—and indeed all specimens from Orizaba and Mirador to Costa Rica,—agrees in the main with the northern bird, except that all the black feathers of the jugulum have white spots, as in _M. flavigula_. The outermost tail-feather of Mr. Salvin’s specimen has two narrow transverse whitish bands, and a spot indicating a third, as well as a light tip. The white markings on the inner quills are more like the northern bird, though on the outermost ones there is the same tendency to form spots as in a few northern specimens (as 6,149 from Los Nogales, &c.). The bill is very different from either in being shorter, broader, much stouter, and the culmen more decurved.

These peculiarities, which are constant, appear to indicate a decided or strongly marked variety, as a series of almost a hundred specimens of the northern bird from many localities exhibit none of the characters mentioned, while all of an equally large series from Central America agree in possessing them.

A series of Jalapan specimens from the cabinet of Mr. Lawrence show a close relationship to skins from the Rio Grande, and do not approach the Guatemalan bird in the peculiar characters just referred to, except in the shortness and curvature of the bill. In one specimen there is an approach to the Bogotan in a moderate degree of barring on the white inner edgings of the tertials; in the rest, however, they are continuously white.

HABITS. This handsome Woodpecker, distinguished both by the remarkable beauty of its plumage and the peculiarity of its provident habits, has a widely extended area of distribution, covering the Pacific Coast, from Oregon throughout Mexico. In Central America it is replaced by the variety _striatipectus_, and in New Grenada by the var. _flavigula_, while at Cape St. Lucas we find another local form, _M. angustifrons_. So far as we have the means of ascertaining their habits, we find no mention of any essential differences in this respect among these races.

Suckley and Cooper did not meet with this bird in Washington Territory, and Mr. Lord met with it in abundance on his journey from Yreka to the boundary line of British Columbia. Mr. Dresser did not observe it at San Antonio. Mr. Clark met with it at the Coppermines, in New Mexico, in great numbers, and feeding principally among the oaks. Lieutenant Couch found it in the recesses of the Sierra Madre quite common and very tame, resorting to high trees in search of its food. He did not meet with it east of the Sierra Madre. Dr. Kennerly first observed it in the vicinity of Santa Cruz, where it was very frequent on the mountain-slopes, always preferring the tallest trees, but very shy, and it was with difficulty that a specimen could be procured. Mr. Nuttall, who first added this bird to our fauna, speaks of it as very plentiful in the forests around Santa Barbara. Between that region and the Pueblo de los Angeles, Dr. Gambel met with it in great abundance, although neither writer makes mention of any peculiarities of habit. Mr. Emanuel Samuels met with it in and around Petaluma, where he obtained the eggs.

Dr. Newberry, in his Report on the zoölogy of Lieutenant Williamson’s route (P. R. R. Reports, VI), states that the range of this species extends to the Columbia, and perhaps above, to the westward of the Cascade Range, though more common in California than in Oregon. It was not found in the Des Chutes Basin, nor in the Cascade Mountains.

In the list of the birds of Guatemala given by Mr. Salvin in the Ibis, this Woodpecker is mentioned (I, p. 137) as being found in the Central Region, at Calderas, on the Volcan de Fuego, in forests of evergreen oaks, where it feeds on acorns.

Dr. Heermann describes it as among the noisiest as well as the most abundant of the Woodpeckers of California. He speaks of it as catching insects on the wing, after the manner of a Flycatcher, and mentions its very extraordinary habit of digging small holes in the bark of the pine and the oak, in which it stores acorns for its food in winter. He adds that one of these acorns is placed in each hole, and is so tightly fitted or driven in that it is with difficulty extracted. Thus, the bark of a large pine forty or fifty feet high will present the appearance of being closely studded with brass nails, the heads only being visible. These acorns are thus stored in large quantities, and serve not only the Woodpecker, but trespassers as well. Dr. Heermann speaks of the nest as being excavated in the body of the tree to a depth varying from six inches to two feet, the eggs being four or five in number, and pure white.

These very remarkable and, for a Woodpecker, somewhat anomalous habits, first mentioned among American writers by Dr. Heermann, have given rise to various conflicting statements and theories in regard to the design of these collections of acorns. Some have even ventured to discredit the facts, but these are too well authenticated to be questioned. Too many naturalists whose accuracy cannot be doubted have been eyewitnesses to these performances. Among these is Mr. J. K. Lord, who, however, was constrained to confess his utter inability to explain why the birds did so. He was never able to find an acorn that seemed to have been eaten, nor a trace of vegetable matter in their stomachs, and at the close of his investigations he frankly admitted this storing of acorns to be a mystery for which he could offer no satisfactory explanation.

M. H. de Saussure, the Swiss naturalist, in an interesting paper published in 1858 in the _Bibliothèque Universelle_ of Geneva, furnishes some very interesting observations on the habits of a Woodpecker, which he supposed to be the _Colaptes mexicanoides_ of Mexico, of storing collections of acorns in the hollow stems of the maguay plants. Sumichrast, who accompanied Saussure in his excursion, while recognizing the entire truth of the interesting facts he narrates, is confident that the credit of all this instinctive forethought belongs not to the _Colaptes_, but to the Mexican race of this species. Saussure’s article being too long to quote in full, we give an abstract.

The slopes of a volcanic mountain, Pizarro, near Perote, in Mexico, are covered with immense beds of the maguay (_Agave americana_), with larger growths of yuccas, but without any other large shrubs or trees. Saussure was surprised to find this silent and dismal wilderness swarming with Woodpeckers. A circumstance so unusual as this large congregation of birds, by nature so solitary, in a spot so unattractive, prompted him to investigate the mystery. The birds were seen to fly first to the stalks of the maguay, to attack them with their beaks, and then to pass to the yuccas, and there repeat their labors. These stalks, upon examination, were all found to be riddled with holes, placed irregularly one above another, and communicating with the hollow cavity within. On cutting open one of these stalks, he found it filled with acorns.

As is well known, this plant, after flowering, dies, its stalk remains, its outer covering hardens into a flinty texture, and its centre becomes hollow. This convenient cavity is used by the Woodpecker as a storehouse for provisions that are unusual food for the tribe. The central cavity of the stalk is only large enough to receive one acorn at a time. They are packed in, one above the other, until the cavity is full. How did these Woodpeckers first learn to thus use these storehouses, by nature closed against them? The intelligent instinct that enabled this bird to solve this problem Saussure regarded as not the least surprising feature. With its beak it pierces a small round hole through the lower portion into the central cavity, and thrusts in acorns until the hollow is filled to the level of the hole. It then makes a second opening higher up, and fills the space below in a like manner, and so proceeds until the entire stalk is full. Sometimes the space is too small to receive the acorns, and they have to be forced in by blows from its beak. In other stalks there are no cavities, and then the Woodpecker creates one for each acorn, forcing it into the centre of the pith.

The labor necessary to enable the bird to accomplish all this is very considerable, and great industry is required to collect its stores; but, once collected, the storehouse is a very safe and convenient one. Mount Pizarro is in the midst of a barren desert of sand and volcanic _débris_. There are no oak-trees nearer than the Cordilleras, thirty miles distant, and therefore the collecting and storing of each acorn required a flight of sixty miles.

This, reasons Saussure, is obviously an instinctive preparation, on the part of these birds, to provide the means of supporting life during the arid winter months, when no rain falls and everything is parched. His observations were made in April, the last of the winter months; and he found the Woodpeckers withdrawing food from their depositories, and satisfied himself that the birds were eating the acorn itself, and not the diminutive maggots a few of them contained.

The ingenuity with which the bird managed to get at the contents of each acorn was also quite striking. Its feet being unfit for grasping the acorn, it digs a hole into the dry bark of the yuccas, just large enough to receive the small end of the acorn, which it inserts, making use of its bill to split it open, as with a wedge. The trunks of the yuccas were all found riddled with these holes.

There are several remarkable features to be noticed in the facts observed by Saussure,—the provident instinct which prompts this bird to lay by stores of provisions for the winter; the great distance traversed to collect a kind of food so unusual for its race; and its seeking, in a spot so remote from its natural abode, a storehouse so remarkable. Can instinct alone teach, or have experience and reason taught, these birds, that, better far than the bark of trees, or cracks in rocks, or cavities dug in the earth, or any other known hiding-place, are these hidden cavities within the hollow stems of distant plants? What first taught them how to break through the flinty coverings of these retreats? By what revelation could these birds have been informed that within these dry and closed stalks they could, by searching, find suitable places, protected from moisture, for preserving their stores in a state most favorable for their long preservation, safe from gnawing rats, and from those acorn-eating birds whose bills are not strong or sharp enough to cut through their tough enclosures?

M. Sumichrast, who afterwards enjoyed unusual opportunities for observing the habits of these Woodpeckers in the State of Vera Cruz, states that they dwell exclusively in oak woods, and that near Potrero, as well as in the alpine regions, trunks of oak-trees are found pierced with small holes in circular lines around their circumference. Into each of these holes these birds drive the acorns by repeated blows of their beaks, so as to fix them firmly. At other times they make their collection of acorns in openings between the raised bark of dry trees and the trunks. This writer states that he has sought in vain to explain such performances satisfactorily. The localities in which these birds reside, in Mexico, teem at all seasons with insects; and it seems absurd, therefore, to suppose that they can be in quest of the small, almost microscopic, larvæ contained in the acorns.

Dr. C. T. Jackson sought to account for these interesting performances on the ingenious hypothesis that the acorns thus stored are always infested with larvæ, and never sound ones; that they are driven into the tree cup-end foremost, so as to securely imprison the maggot and prevent its escape, and thus enable the Woodpecker to devour it at its leisure. This would argue a wonderful degree of intelligence and forethought, on the part of the Woodpecker, and more than it is entitled to; for the facts do not sustain this hypothesis. The acorns are not put into the tree with the cup-end in, but invariably the reverse, so far as we have noticed; and the acorns, so far from being wormy, are, in nine cases out of ten, sound ones. Besides, this theory affords no explanation of the large collections of loose acorns made by these birds in hollow trees, or in the stalks of the maguay plants. Nor can we understand why, if so intelligent, they make so little use of these acorns, as seems to be the almost universal testimony of California naturalists. And, as still further demonstrating the incorrectness of this hypothesis, we have recently been informed by Dr. Canfield of Monterey, Cal., that occasionally these Woodpeckers, following an instinct so blind that they do not distinguish between an acorn and a pebble, are known to fill up the holes they have drilled with so much labor, not only with acorns, but occasionally with stones. In time the bark and the wood grow over these, and after a few years they are left a long way from the surface. These trees are usually the sugar-pine of California, a wood much used for lumber. Occasionally one of these trees is cut, the log taken to mill without its being known that it is thus charged with rounded pieces of flint or agate, and the saws that come in contact with them are broken.

Without venturing to present an explanation of facts that have appeared so contradictory and unsatisfactory to other naturalists, such as we can claim to be either comprehensive or entirely satisfactory, we cannot discredit the positive averments of such observers as Saussure and Salvin. We believe that these Woodpeckers do eat the acorns, when they can do no better. And when we are confronted with the fact, which we do not feel at liberty to altogether disregard, that in very large regions this bird seems to labor in vain, and makes no use of the treasures it has thus heaped together, we can only attempt an explanation. This Woodpecker is found over an immense area. It everywhere has the same instinctive promptings to provide, not “for a rainy day,” but for the exact opposite,—for a long interval during which no rain falls, for nearly two hundred days at a time, in all the low and hot lands of Mexico and Central America. There these accumulations become a necessity, there we are informed they do eat the acorns, and, more than this, many other birds and beasts derive the means of self-preservation in times of famine from the provident labors of this bird. That in Oregon, in California, and in the mountains of Mexico and elsewhere, where better and more natural food offers throughout the year, it is rarely known to eat the acorns it has thus labored to save, only seems to prove that it acts under the influences of an undiscriminating instinct that prompts it to gather in its stores whether it needs them or not.

It may be, too, that writers have too hastily inferred that these birds never eat the acorns, because they have been unable to obtain complete evidence of the fact. We have recently received from C. W. Plass, Esq., some interesting facts, which, if they do not prove that these birds in the winter visit their stores and eat their acorns, render it highly probable. Mr. Plass resides near Napa City, Cal., near which city, and on the edge of the pine forests, he has recently constructed a house. The gable-ends of this dwelling the California Woodpeckers have found a very convenient storehouse for their acorns, and Mr. Plass has very considerately permitted them to do so unmolested. The window in the gable slides up upon pullies its whole length, to admit of a passage to the upper verandah, and the open space in the wall admits of the nuts falling down into the upper hall, and this frequently happens when the birds attempt to extricate them from the outside. Nearly all these nuts are found to be sound, and contain no worm, while those that fall outside are empty shells. Empty shells have also been noticed by Mr. Plass under the trees, indicating that the acorns have been eaten.

The Smithsonian Institution has received specimens of the American race of this Woodpecker, collected at Belize by Dr. Berendt, and accompanied by illustrations of their work in the way of implantation of acorns in the bark of trees.

The eggs of this Woodpecker, obtained by Mr. Emanuel Samuels near Petaluma, Cal., and now in the collection of the Boston Society of Natural History, are undistinguishable from the eggs of other Woodpeckers in form or color, except that they are somewhat oblong, and measure 1.12 inches in length by .90 of an inch in breadth.

Melanerpes formicivorus, var. angustifrons, BAIRD.

THE NARROW-FRONTED WOODPECKER.

_Melanerpes formicivorus_, var. _angustifrons_, BAIRD, COOPER, Orn.
Cal. I, 1870, 405.

SP. CHAR. Compared with _M. formicivorus_, the size is smaller. The light frontal bar is much narrower; in the female scarcely more than half the black one behind it, and not reaching anything like as far back as the anterior border of the eye, instead of exceeding this limit. The light frontal and the black bars together are only about two thirds the length of the occipital red, instead of exceeding it in length; the red patch reaches forward nearly or quite to the posterior border of the eye, instead of falling a considerable distance behind it, and being much broader posteriorly. The frontal band too is gamboge-yellow, much like the throat, and not white; the connection with the yellow throat-patch much broader. The white upper tail-coverts show a tendency to a black edge. Length, 8.00; wing, 5.20; tail, 3.20.

HAB. Cape St. Lucas.

As the differences mentioned are constant, we consider the Cape St. Lucas bird as forming at least a permanent variety, and indicate it as above. A single specimen from the Sierra Madre, of Colima, is very similar.

HABITS. We have no information as to the habits of this singular race of the _M. formicivorus_, found at Cape St. Lucas by Mr. John Xantus. It will be an interesting matter for investigation to ascertain to what extent the totally different character of the region in which this bird is met with from those in which the _M. formicivorus_ is found, may have modified its habits and its manner of life.

SECTION COLAPTEÆ.

This section, formerly embracing but one genus additional to _Colaptes_, has recently had three more added to it by Bonaparte. The only United States representative, however, is _Colaptes_.

GENUS COLAPTES, SWAINSON.

_Colaptes_, SWAINSON, Zoöl. Jour. III, Dec. 1827, 353. (Type,
_Cuculus auratus_, LINN.)
_Geopicos_, MALHERBE, Mém. Acad. Metz, 1849, 358. (_G. campestris._)

GEN. CHAR. Bill slender, depressed at the base, then compressed. Culmen much curved, gonys straight; both with acute ridges, and coming to quite a sharp point with the commissure at the end; the bill, consequently, not truncate at the end. No ridges on the bill. Nostrils basal, median, oval, and exposed. Gonys very short; about half the culmen. Feet large; the anterior outer toe considerably longer than the posterior. Tail long, exceeding the secondaries; the feathers suddenly acuminate, with elongated points.

[Line drawing: _Colaptes auratus._
1341 ♂]

There are four well-marked representatives of the typical genus _Colaptes_ belonging to Middle and North America, three of them found within the limits of the United States, in addition to what has been called a hybrid between two of them. The common and distinctive characters of these four are as follows:—

Species and Varieties.

COMMON CHARACTERS. Head and neck ashy or brown, unvaried except by a black or red malar patch in the male. Back and wings brown, banded transversely with black; rump and upper tail-coverts white. Beneath whitish, with circular black spots, and bands on crissum; a black pectoral crescent. Shafts and under surfaces of quills and tail-feathers either yellow or red.

A. Mustache red; throat ash; no red nuchal crescent.

_a._ Under surface and shafts of wings and tail red.

1. C. mexicanoides.[133] Hood bright cinnamon-rufous;
feathers of mustache black below surface. Upper parts
barred with black and whitish-brown, the two colors of
about equal width. Shafts, etc., dull brick-red. Rump
spotted with black; black terminal zone of under
surface of tail narrow, badly defined. Wing, 6.15;
tail, 4.90; bill, 1.77. _Hab._ Southern Mexico and
Guatemala.

2. C. mexicanus.[134] Hood ashy-olivaceous, more
rufescent anteriorly, light cinnamon on lores and
around eyes; feathers of mustache light ash below
surface. Upper parts umber-brown, barred with black,
the black only about one fourth as wide as the brown.
Shafts, etc., fine salmon-red, or pinkish orange-red.
Rump unspotted; black terminal zone of tail broad,
sharply defined. Wing, 6.70; tail, 5.00; bill, 1.60.
_Hab._ Middle and Western Province of United States,
south into Eastern Mexico to Mirador and Orizaba, and
Jalapa.

_b._ Under surface and shafts of wings and tail
gamboge-yellow.

3. C. chrysoides. Hood uniform light cinnamon; upper
parts raw umber with sparse, very narrow and distant,
bars of black. Rump immaculate; black terminal zone of
tail occupying nearly the terminal half, and very
sharply defined. Wing, 5.90; tail, 5.70; bill, 1.80.
_Hab._ Colorado and Cape St. Lucas region of Southern
Middle Province of United States.

B. Mustache black; a red nuchal crescent. Throat pinkish,
hood ashy.

4. C. auratus. Shafts, etc., gamboge-yellow; upper
parts olivaceous-brown, with narrow bars of black,
about half as wide as the brown.

Rump immaculate; black terminal zone of under
surface of tail broad, more than half an inch wide
on outer feather. Edges of tail-feathers narrowly
edged, but not indented, with whitish. Outer web of
lateral feathers without spots of dusky. Wing, 6.10;
tail, 4.80; bill, 1.58. _Hab._ Eastern Province of
North America var. _auratus_.

Rump spotted with black; black terminal zone of tail
narrow, consisting on outer feather of an irregular
spot less than a quarter of an inch wide. Edges of
all the tail-feathers indented with whitish bars;
outer web of lateral feathers with quadrate spots of
dusky along the edge. Wing, 5.75; tail, 4.75; bill,
1.60. _Hab._ Cuba var. _chrysocaulosus_.[135]

[133] _Colaptes mexicanoides_, LAFR. Rev. Zoöl. 1844,
42.—SCL. & SALV. Ibis, 1859, 137.—SCL. Catal. Am. B. 1862,
344. _Colaptes rubricatus_, GRAY, Gen. B. pl. cxi. _Geopicus
rub._ MALH. Monog. Pic. II, 265, pl. cx, figs. 1, 2. _Picus
submexicanus_, SUND. Consp. Pic. 1866, 72.

[134] A series of hybrids between _mexicanus_ and _auratus_
is in the Smithsonian collection, these specimens exhibiting
every possible combination of the characters of the two.

[135] _Colaptes auratus_, var. _chrysocaulosus_. _Colaptes
chrysocaulosus_, GUNDLACH, Boston Journal.—IB. Repert. I,
1866, 294.

Colaptes auratus, SWAINSON.

FLICKER; YELLOW-SHAFTED WOODPECKER; HIGH-HOLDER.

_Cuculus auratus_, LINN. Syst. Nat., I, (ed. 10,) 1758, 112. _Picus
auratus_, LINN. Syst. Nat. 1, (ed. 12,) 1766, 174.—FORSTER,
Phil. Trans. LXII, 1772, 383.—VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. II,
1807, 66, pl. cxxiii.—WILSON, Am. Orn. I, 1810, 45, pl. iii,
f. 1.—WAGLER, Syst. Av. 1827, No. 84.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I,
1832, 191; V, 540, pl. xxxvii.—IB. Birds Amer. IV, 1842, 282,
pl. cclxxiii.—SUNDEVALL, Consp. 71. _Colaptes auratus_, SW.
Zoöl. Jour. III, 1827, 353.—IB. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831,
314.—BON. List, 1838.—IB. Conspectus, 1850, 113.—BAIRD,
Birds N. Am. 1858, 118.—MAX. Cab. Jour. 1858, 420.—DRESSER,
Ibis, 1865, 470 (San Antonio, one specimen only seen).—SCL.
Cat. 1862, 344.—GRAY, Cat. 1868, 120.—FOWLER, Am. Nat. III,
1869, 422.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Chicago Ac. I, 1869, 275
(Alaska).—SAMUELS, 105.—ALLEN, B. E. Fla. 307.

SP. CHAR. Shafts and under surfaces of wing and tail feathers gamboge-yellow. Male with a black patch on each side of the cheek. A red crescent on the nape. Throat and stripe beneath the eye pale lilac-brown. Back glossed with olivaceous-green. Female without the black cheek-patch.

ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS. A crescentic patch on the breast and rounded spots on the belly black. Back and wing-coverts with interrupted transverse bands of black. Neck above and on the sides ashy. Beneath pale pinkish-brown, tinged with yellow on the abdomen, each feather with a heart-shaped spot of black near the end. Rump white. Length, 12.50; wing, 6.00.

HAB. All of eastern North America to the eastern slopes of Rocky Mountains; farther north, extending across along the Yukon as far at least as Nulato, perhaps to the Pacific. Greenland (REINHARDT). Localities: San Antonio, Texas, only one specimen (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 470).

Specimens vary considerably in size and proportions; the more northern ones are much the larger. The spots vary in number and in size; they may be circular, or transversely or longitudinally oval. Western specimens appear paler. In a Selkirk Settlement specimen the belly is tinged with pale sulphur-yellow, the back with olivaceous-green.

This species, in general pattern of coloration, resembles the _C. mexicanus_, although the colors are very different. Thus the shafts of the quills, with their under surfaces, are gamboge-yellow, instead of orange-red. There is a conspicuous nuchal crescent of crimson wanting, or but slightly indicated, in _mexicanus_. The cheek-patch is pure black, widening and abruptly truncate behind, instead of bright crimson, pointed or rounded behind. The shade of the upper parts is olivaceous-green, instead of purplish-brown. The top of the head and the nape are more ashy. The chin, throat, neck, and sides of the head, are pale purplish or lilac brown, instead of bluish-ash; the space above, below, and around the eye of the same color, instead of having reddish-brown above and ashy below.

The young of this species is sufficiently like the adult to be readily recognizable. Sometimes the entire crown is faintly tipped with red, as characteristic of young Woodpeckers.

HABITS. The Golden-winged Woodpecker is altogether the most common and the most widely distributed of the North American representatives of the genus. According to Sir John Richardson, it visits the fur countries in the summer, extending its migrations as far to the north as the Great Slave Lake, and resorting in great numbers to the plains of the Saskatchewan. It was found by Dr. Woodhouse very abundant in Texas and the Indian Territory, and it is given by Reinhardt as occurring in Greenland. Mr. McFarlane found it breeding at Fort Anderson; Mr. Ross at Fort Rae, Fort Resolution, and Fort Simpson; and Mr. Kennicott at Fort Yukon. All this testimony demonstrates a distribution throughout the entire eastern portion of North America, from the Gulf of Mexico almost to the Arctic Ocean, and from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains.

In the more northern portions of the continent this bird is only a summer visitant, but in the Southern and Middle, and to some extent in the New England States, it is a permanent resident. Wilson speaks of seeing them exposed for sale in the markets of Philadelphia during each month of a very rigorous winter. Wilson’s observations of their habits during breeding, made in Pennsylvania, were that early in April they begin to prepare their nest. This is built in the hollow body or branch of a tree, sometimes, though not always, at a considerable height from the ground. He adds that he has frequently known them to fix on the trunk of an old apple-tree, at a height not more than six feet from the root. He also mentions as quite surprising the sagacity of this bird in discovering, under a sound bark, a hollow limb or trunk of a tree, and its perseverance in perforating it for purposes of incubation. The male and female alternately relieve and encourage each other by mutual caresses, renewing their labors for several days, till the object is attained, and the place rendered sufficiently capacious, convenient, and secure. They are often so extremely intent upon their work as to be heard at their labor till a very late hour in the night. Wilson mentions one instance where he knew a pair to dig first five inches straight forward, and then downward more than twice that distance, into a solid black-oak. They carry in no materials for their nest, the soft chips and dust of the wood serving for this purpose. The female lays six white eggs, almost transparent, very thick at the greater end, and tapering suddenly to the other. The young soon leave the nest, climbing to the higher branches, where they are fed by their parents.

According to Mr. Audubon this Woodpecker rears two broods in a season, the usual number of eggs being six. In one instance, however, Mr. MacCulloch, quoted by Audubon, speaks of having found a nest in a rotten stump, which contained no less than eighteen young birds, of various ages, and at least two eggs not quite hatched. It is not improbable that, in cases where the number of eggs exceeds seven or eight, more females than one have contributed to the number. In one instance, upon sawing off the decayed top of an old tree, in which these birds had a nest, twelve eggs were found. These were not molested, but, on visiting the place a few days after, I found the excavation to have been deepened from eighteen to twenty-four inches.

Mr. C. S. Paine, of Randolph, Vt., writing in October, 1860, furnishes some interesting observations made in regard to these birds in the central part of that State. He says, “This Woodpecker is very common, and makes its appearance about the 20th of April. Between the 1st and the 15th of May it usually commences boring a hole for the nest, and deposits its eggs the last of May or the first of June.” He found three nests that year, all of which were in old stumps on the banks of a small stream. Each nest contained _seven_ eggs. The boy who took them out was able to do so without any cutting, and found them at the depth of his elbow. In another nest there were but three eggs when first discovered. The limb was cut down nearly to a level with the eggs, which were taken. The next day the nest had been deepened a whole foot and another egg deposited. Mr. Paine has never known them go into thick woods to breed, but they seem rather to prefer the edges of woods. He has never known one to breed in an old cavity, but in one instance a pair selected a partially decayed stump for their operations. When they are disturbed, they sometimes fly around their nests, uttering shrill, squeaking notes, occasionally intermixing with them guttural or gurgling tones.

It is probably true that they usually excavate their own burrow, but this is not an invariable rule. In the fall of 1870 a pair of these Woodpeckers took shelter in my barn, remaining there during the winter. Although there were abundant means of entrance and of egress, they wrought for themselves other passages out and in through the most solid part of the sides of the building. Early in the spring they took possession of a large cavity in an old apple-tree, directly on the path between the barn and the house, where they reared their family. They were very shy, and rarely permitted themselves to be seen. The nest contained six young, each of which had been hatched at successive intervals, leaving the nest one after the other. The youngest was nearly a fortnight later to depart than the first. Just before leaving the nest, the oldest bird climbed to the opening of the cavity, filling the whole space, and uttering a loud hissing sound whenever the nest was approached. As soon as they could use their wings, even partially, they were removed, one by one, to a more retired part of the grounds, where they were fed by their parents.

Throughout Massachusetts, this bird, generally known as the Pigeon Woodpecker, is one of the most common and familiar birds. They abound in old orchards and groves, and manifest more apparent confidence in man than the treatment they receive at his hands seems to justify. Their nests are usually constructed at the distance of only a few feet from the ground, and though Wilson, Audubon, and Nuttall agree upon six as the average of their eggs, they frequently exceed this number. Mr. Audubon gives as the measurement of the eggs of this species 1.08 inches in length and .88 of an inch in breadth. Their length varies from 1.05 to 1.15 inches, and their breadth from .91 to .85 of an inch. Their average measurement is 1.09 by .88 of an inch.

Colaptes mexicanus, SWAINSON.

RED-SHAFTED FLICKER.

_Colaptes mexicanus_, SW. Syn. Mex. Birds, in Philos. Mag. I, 1827,
440.—IB. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 315.—NEWBERRY, Zoöl. Cal. &
Or. Route, 91; P. R. R. Rep. VI, 1857.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am.
1858, 120.—MAX. Cab. Jour. 1858, 420, mixed with
_hybridus_.—LORD, Proc. R. Art. Inst. I, IV, 112.—COOPER &
SUCKLEY, 163.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1858, 309 (Oaxaca).—IB. Cat.
1862, 344.—DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 470 (San Antonio,
rare).—COUES, Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 56.—SUMICHRAST, Mem. Bost.
Soc. I, 1869, 562 (alpine district, Vera Cruz).—GRAY, Cat.
1868, 121.—DALL & BANNISTER, Pr. Chicago Ac. I, 1869, 275
(Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 408. _Picus mexicanus_,
AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 174, pl. ccccxvi.—IB. Birds America,
IV, 1842, 295, pl. cclxxiv.—SUNDEVALL, Consp. 72. _Colaptes
collaris_, VIGORS, Zoöl. Jour. IV, Jan. 1829, 353.—IB. Zoöl.
Beechey’s Voy. 1839, 24, pl. ix. _Picus rubricatus_, WAGLER,
Isis, 1829, V, May, 516. (“Lichtenstein Mus. Berol.”) _Colaptes
rubricatus_, BON. Pr. Zoöl. Soc. V, 1837, 108.—IB. List,
1838.—IB. Conspectus, 1850, 114. _? Picus cafer_, GMELIN,
Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 431.—LATH. Index Ornith. II, 1790, 242.
_? Picus lathami_, WAGLER, Syst. 1827, No. 85 (Cape of Good
Hope?).

SP. CHAR. Shafts and under surfaces of wing and tail feathers orange-red. Male with a red patch on each side the cheek; nape without red crescent; sometimes very faint indications laterally. Throat and stripe beneath the eye bluish-ash. Back glossed with purplish-brown. Female without the red cheek-patch. Length, about 13.00; wing, over 6.50.

ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS. Spots on the belly, a crescent on the breast, and interrupted transverse bands on the back, black.

HAB. Western North America from Pacific to the Black Hills; north to Sitka on the coast. Localities: Oaxaca (SCL. P. Z. S. 1858, 305); Vera Cruz, alpine regions (SUMICHRAST, Mem. Bost. Soc. I, 1869. 562); San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865. 470); W. Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 56).

The female is similar in every way, perhaps a little smaller, but lacks the red mustache. This is, however, indicated by a brown tinge over an area corresponding with that of the red of the male.

In the present specimen (1,886) there is a slight indication of an interrupted nuchal red band, as in the common Flicker, in some crimson fibres to some of the feathers about as far behind the eye as this is from the bill. A large proportion of males before us exhibit the same characteristic, some more, some less, although it generally requires careful examination for its detection. It may possibly be a characteristic of the not fully mature bird, although it occurs in two out of three male specimens.

There is a little variation in the size of the pectoral crescent and spots; the latter are sometimes rounded or oblong cordate, instead of circular. The bill varies as much as three or four tenths of an inch. The rump, usually immaculate, sometimes has a few black streaks. The extent of the red whisker varies a little. In skins from Oregon and Washington the color of the back is as described; in those from California and New Mexico it is of a grayer cast. There is little, if any, variation in the shade of red in the whiskers and quill-feathers. The head is washed on the forehead with rufous, passing into ashy on the nape.

There is not only some difference in the size of this species, in the same locality, but, as a general rule, the more southern specimens are smaller.

This species is distinct from the _C. mexicanoides_ of Lafresnaye, though somewhat resembling it. It is, however, a smaller bird; the red of the cheeks is deeper; the whole upper part of the head and neck uniform reddish-cinnamon without any ash, in marked contrast to that on the sides of the head. The back is strongly glossed with reddish-brown, and the black transverse bars are much more distinct, closer and broader, three or four on each feather, instead of two only. The rump and upper tail-coverts are closely barred, the centre of the former only clearer white, but even here each feather has a cordate spot of white. The spots on the flanks posteriorly exhibit a tendency to become transverse bars.

Specimens from Mount Orizaba, Mexico, are very similar to those from Oregon in color, presenting no appreciable difference. The size is, however, much less, a male measuring 10.50, wing 6.00, tail 4.60 inches, instead of 12.75, 6.75, and 5.25 respectively. While, however, the feet are smaller (tarsus 1.00 instead of 1.15), the bill is fully as large, or even larger.

Most young birds of this species have a tinge of red on top of the head, and frequently a decided nuchal crescent of red; but these are only embryonic features, and disappear with maturity.

HABITS. This species, the counterpart in so many respects of the Golden-winged Woodpecker, appears to take the place of that species from the slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, throughout western North America. Dr. Woodhouse speaks of finding it abundant along the banks of the Rio Grande. And in the fine collection belonging to the Smithsonian Institution are specimens from the Straits of Fuca, Fort Steilacoom, and Fort Vancouver, in Washington Territory, from the Columbia River, from various points in California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, Mexico, etc. Dr. Gambel, in his Paper on the birds of California, first met with the Red-shafted Woodpecker soon after leaving New Mexico, and it continued to California, where he found it very abundant. He describes it as a remarkably shy bird, and adds that he always saw it on the margins of small creeks, where nothing grew larger than a willow-bush. Dr. Heermann also found it abundant in California. Dr. Newberry, in his Report on the zoölogy of Lieutenant Williamson’s expedition, speaks of the Red-shafted Flicker as rather a common bird in all parts of California and Oregon which his party visited. He describes many of its habits as identical with those of the Golden Flicker (_C. auratus_), but regards it as much the shyer bird. Dr. Cooper also mentions the fact of the great abundance of this bird along the western coast, equalling that of its closely allied cousin on the eastern side of the Mississippi. It also resembles, he adds, that bird so exactly in habits and notes that the description of one will apply with exactness to the other. It is a constant resident in Washington Territory, or at least west of the Cascade Mountains. He observed it already burrowing out holes for its nests in April, at the Straits of Fuca. About June 1 he found a nest containing seven young, nearly fledged, which already showed in the male the distinguishing red mustache. Dr. Suckley, in the same report, also says that it is extremely common in the timbered districts of Washington Territory, and adds that its habits, voice, calls, etc., are precisely similar to those of the Yellow-Hammer of the Eastern States. Mr. Nuttall, as quoted by Mr. Audubon, states that he first came upon this bird in the narrow belt of forest which borders Laramie’s Fork of the Platte, and adds that he scarcely lost sight of it from that time until he reached the shores of the Pacific. Its manners, in all respects, are so entirely similar to those of the common species that the same description applies to both. He also regards it as the shyer bird of the two, and less frequently seen on the ground. They burrow in the oak and pine trees, and lay white eggs, after the manner of the whole family, and these eggs are in no wise distinguishable from those of the Golden-wing.

Dr. Cooper, in his Report upon the birds of California, refers to this as a common species, and found in every part of the State except the bare plains. It even frequents the low bushes, where no trees are to be seen for miles. In the middle wooded districts, and towards the north, it is much more abundant than elsewhere.

Their nesting-holes are at all heights from the ground, and are usually about one foot in depth. In the southern part of the State their eggs are laid in April, but farther north, at the Columbia, in May.