510 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Si'. Char. A miniature of P. vUlosus. Above blaclc, with a white band down the 

 back. Two white stripos on the side of the head; the lower of opposite sides always 

 separated behind, tlie upper sometimes conduent on the nape. Two stripes of black 

 on the side of the head, the lower not running into the forehead. Beneath white ; all 

 the middle and greater coverts and all the quills with white spots, the larger covert.< 

 with two series each ; tertiaries or inner secondaries all banded with white. Two outer 

 tail-feathers white, with two bands of black at end ; third white at tip and externally, 

 cri.ssum sometimes spotted with black. Length, about 6.2.5 ; wing, 3.75. Male with red, 

 terminating the white feathers on the nape. Young with whole top of head red. 



Hab. Eastern United States, towards the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, into 

 British Columbia and the Humboldt Mountains, and north to the limit,s of the woods; 

 along whole Yukon River ; perhaps to the Pacific, north of the 49th parallel ; Kodiak. 

 Localities : San Antonio, Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 468). Accidental in England. 



The remarks already made on the variation of Pimis villosus apply ei^iially 

 well here ; all the differences in size and markings with locality being almost 

 exactly reproduced. The western variety, P. gairdneri, is equally uncertain 

 in characters as P. harrisi, and as little entitled to specific distinction. As 

 in the previous instance, we shall call typical pubescens those specimens in 

 which all the middle and greater coverts and all the quills including the 

 innermost secondaries are spotted with white, while those in which any of 

 these feathers, whether all the coverts, as in Oregon birds, or only a few of 

 them, are unspotted, may lie called var. (jairdncri. 



Of typical ^j«&csc(V(.s in tlie Eastern States there are minor variations, but 

 not of much account. Thus the forehead itself, apart from the ^\•llite na.-^al 

 tufts, is sometimes white, connecting with the white superciliary stripe ; 

 more frequently, however, the whole forehead is black. Xorthern specimens 

 are larger and have larger white spots, and not unfrequently the black cheek- 

 stripe is invaded anteriorly by white, which, however, is appreciable at the 

 base of the feathers. The black bars on the tail are much restricted in 

 specimens from the Yukon. Southern specimens are smaller and darker, 

 with smaller spots on the wings. 



In all the changes of the two species, there is no difficulty in distinguish- 

 ing P. 2)ubcscens from P. villosus by the black bars on outer tail-feathers of 

 the former, and their absence in the latter. The crissum of pubesceiis is some- 

 times somewhat spotted with blackish. The white markings on the co\-erts 

 are larger in proportion, and tlicre are almost always two series of white 

 spots on the greater coverts, as in northern varieties of villosus, not one, as 

 in most of tliose from the Middle States. 



Habits. This species, like the Hairy Woodpecker, is a resident rather 

 than a migratory species, and breeds wherever it is met with. It also seems 

 to have very nearly the same geographical distribution with that species. Dr. 

 Woodhouse found it common throughout the Indian Territory, Texas, and 

 New Mexico. It does not, however, appear to have been collected by any 

 of the parties engaged in the Pacific Eailroad surveys, nor by that upon 

 the survey of the ^Mexican boundary. Of seventeen specimens given by 



