392 CLIMBING BIRDS— SCANSORES. 



Sphyropicus ruber, Ojielin. 



THE KED-BKEASTED WOODPECKER 



Piais ruher, GsiELiN, Syst. Nat. I. 1788, 429. — Wagler, Syst. At. 1827, No. 151. — Audu- 

 bon, Om. Biog. V. 1839, 179; pi. 416. Ib. Bii-ils Amcr. IV. 1842, 261 ; pi. 266.— 

 Heer.mann, p. R. Ku]). X. vi. 57. — Piluinnus riihcr, Bonaparte, Consp. Zyg. Atcn. 

 Ital. 1854, 8. 



Pmisjiaviventris, Vieillot, Ois. Am. St-pt. II. 1807, 67. 



Si>hyiOj)icus nibei; Baird, P. R. Rep. IX. Birds, 104. — Cooper and Suckley, XII. iii. 

 Zool. ofW. T. 160. 



Sp. Char. Fourtli quill longest ; third intermediate between fourth and fifth. Bill 

 brown wax-color. Head and neck all round, and breast, carmine red. Above black ; cen- 

 tral line of back from nape to rump spotted with whitish ; rump, wing coverts, and inner 

 web of the inner tail feathers white, the latter with a series of round black spots. Belly 



snl]ihur-yellow, streakeil with brown on the sides. Narrow space around and a little in 

 fi-ont of the e\e black. A narrow yellowish stripe front the nostrils, a short distance be- 

 low and behind the eye. Length, about 9.50 ; e.\tent, 15.75 ; wing, 5.00; tail, 3.40. Iris, 

 bill, and feet, pale brown. 



Hah. Pacific slope of the United States. 



Tliis is rather a Xortheni species, as I have not seen any soiitli of Santa 

 Clara, and there only in the mountains of the Coast Eange in early spring. 

 According to Dr. Heennann, they are not unconmion in the Sierra Nevada, 

 but I did not observe them near the summits, and even at the Columbia 

 Eiver found tliem rather scarce, solitary, and shy, keeping chiefly in the 

 high coniferous trees. Nuttall states that he saw one of their burrows con- 

 taining young in a tall fir-tree in Oregon. During some weeks' stay in the 

 coast mountains towards Santa Cruz, I saw none of them, and think that 

 most of them go North in summer. Their cry is compared by Heermann to 

 that of a young child in distress. 



