514 NORTH AMERICAX BIRDS. 



Boundary Survey. They differed slightly in their liabits from the P. luirrisi, 

 generally hunting for insects on the maples, alders, and stunted oaks, rather 

 than on the pine-trees. Specimens were taken on Vancouver Island, Sumass 

 Prairie, Colville, and the west slope of the Rocky Mountains at an altitude 

 of seven thousand feet above the sea-level. 



jMr. Iiidgway found this Woodpecker to he unaccountalily rare in the 

 Sierra Nevada and all jiDrtions of the Great Basin, as well as in the Wah- 

 satcli and rintali ilountains, even in places where the P. Iwrrlsi was at all 

 times ahuudant. Indeed, he only met with it on two or three occasions, in 

 the fall : first in tlie Upjier Humboldt VaUey, in September, where it was 

 rare in the thickets along tiio streams ; and again in the "Wahsatcli ]Moun- 

 tains, where but a single brood of young was met with in August. 



An egg of this species from Oregon, obtained by Mr. Eicksecker, is larger 

 than that of the imlcsccns, but similar in shape, being very nearly spherical. 

 It measures .96 of an inch in length by .85 in breadth. 



Subgenus DYCTIOPICUS, Boxat. 



Dydiopims, Box.vp. Ateneo Ital. 1S54, 8. (Tj-pe, I'icus scalaris, Wagler.) 

 D'jctiojnpo, Cabanis & Heix. JIus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 74. (Same type.) 



Char. Small species, banded above transversely with lilack or brown and white. 



Of this grouj) there are two sections, — one with the central tail-feathers 

 entirely black, from Mexico and the United States (three species) ; the other 

 with their feathers like the lateral black, l)anded or spotted with white 

 (three species from southern South America). The northern section is char- 

 acterized as follows : — 



Common CnAR.tcTERs. All the larger covert': and quills with white spots becoming 

 transverse bands on innermost secondaries. Cheeks black with a supra-orbital and a 

 malar stripe of white. Back banded alternately with black and white, but not on upper 

 tail-coverts, nor four central tail-feathers. Beneath whitish, sides with elongated black 

 spots ; flanks and crissum transversely barred. Tail-feathers, except as mentioned, with 

 spots or tranverse bars of black. Head of male with red patch above (restricted in 

 nuttalli), each feather with a white spot below the red. Female without red. 



The cliaracters of the species scalaris, with its varieties, and nuttalli, will 

 be found imder Picus. 



