PICID.E — THE WOODPECKERS — PICOIDES. 



385 



black. A narrow concealed white line from the eye a short distance backwards, and 

 a white stripe from the extreme forehead (meeting anterioi-ly) under the eye, and down 

 the sides of the neck. Bristl)- feathers of the base of the bill bruwn. Exposed portion 





Male. 



of two outer tail feathers (first and seconil) white. Iris brown ; bill and feet black. 

 Length, 9.00 to 10.00; extent, IG.OO to 17.00; wing, 5.25 ; tail, 3.85. F<-mcile, without 

 yellow on the head. 



Hah. Northern portions of the United States to the Arctic regions, from the Atlautic 

 to the Pacific. 



I fouud this bird (|iiite imnierou.s al>o\it Lake Tahoe, and the summits of 

 the Sierra Nevada above si.x: thousand feet altitude, in Sei:)temher, and it 

 extends tlience northward, cliieily on tlie east side of these and the Cascade 

 Mountains, as I nexev saw it near the Lower Columbia. At the lake they 

 were quite fearless, coming close to the hotel, and industriously rapping the 

 trees in tlie early morning and evening. In the North I found them very 

 wild, probably because the Indians pin'sue them for their scalps, wliich they 

 consider very valuable. I noticed their burrows in low pine-trees near the 

 lake, where they had doubtless raised their young. According to Nuttall, 

 they lay four or five white eggs. I have found them silent birds, though 

 probably in the spring they have more variety of calls. Tlie only note I 

 heard was a shrill, harsh, rattling cry, sufficiently distinct from that of any 

 other woodpecker. 



Picoides Americanus, Brehm. 



THE STRIPED THEEE-TOED WOODPECKEK. 



Var. fasciatUS. Banded back. 



Picus hirsiitus, ViEiLLOT, Orn. Am. Sept. II. 1807, 68 ; pi. cxxiv. (Eiiropcin specimen). — 

 TVagler, Syst. Av. 1827, No. 27 (mi.xed with imdulatus). — Audubon, Orn. Bioj;. V. 

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