86 U. S. p. K. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS ZOOLOGY — GENERAL REPORT. 



The bill of the young bird differs considerably from that of the adult. Instead of being 

 nearly straight in its upper and lower outlines, with the tip compressed, truncate, and wedge- 

 shaped, it is shorter, sometimes considerably broader, and with the outlines, the upper especi- 

 ally, much curved to a terminal sharp point, instead of wedge. In the immature male (and 

 female also, probably) the entire crown from the base of the bill to the occiput, has the feathers 

 sometimes spotted with white, and tipped with orange red or yellow. Sometimes only the 

 posterior half of the crown is so marked, thus indicating a nearer approach to maturity. The 

 peculiar spotting is like that of Picus scalaris or nuttalli. The white is sometimes almost 

 wanting. The shade of red varies with specimens from carmine to orange yellow, sometimes 

 more decidedly yellow. This is the case in the original of Picus auduhonii of Trudeau, now 

 before me, (2803,) which, besides this character, has every other feature of a young bird, as 

 shown by the curved broad bill, the loose, woolly texture of the feathers, &c. It is a little 

 smaller than corresponding specimens from Pennsylvania, a difference perfectly intelligible, in 

 view of its more southern locality, (Louisiana.) No. 1562, from Carlisle, however, is scarcely 

 larger. 



Specimens vary a little in having the white streak above the eye continuous with the whitish 

 on each side of the base of the^ill. The white of the head and under parts is sometimes more 

 extensive, and brighter. 



As a general rule the specimens of this species from the far west and north are appreciably 

 larger than those from the more eastern States, in which again southern specimens are con- 

 siderably smaller. I can deteet no other difference, except size, in the Picus canadensis, as 

 established by Mr. Audubon. With his typical specimens before me, I find them not even as 

 large as the majority of the western skins ; and while Mr. Audubon describes his male Picus cana- 

 densis as measuring 10.50 inches, the wing 5.08, the tail 3.50, the specimen given in the P. 

 Bor. Amer., from a still more northern locality, measured 11 inches, the wings 5.38, tail 4.25, 

 and in no other way different either from them or Pennsylvania ones. It is to the larger variety 

 from Canada that both Picus phiUipsii and Picus martinae belong. With the original specimens 

 of Mr. Aububon before me, I find every characteristic of the young bird in the soft bones, the 

 woolly, soft feathers of the under parts, &c. In the "P. phiUipsii" the characters are precisely 

 as in the young males described from Carlisle. The top of the head is irregularly spotted with 

 orange red in one specimen, and orange yellow in the supposed female. In '^ Picus martinae," 

 again, there is rather more of a dull orange yellow patch on the crown, the feathers, even the 

 black ones, spotted with white, as in 1562 from Carlisle. The immaturity of the red or yellow 

 markings in all these specimens is clearly shown by their lacking the symmetry seen in known 

 adults, the outlines being all irregular and the colors more or less interrupted and unsymmetrical 

 in places. In one specimen from Carlisle, nearly adult, (2423,) the top of the head or crown is 

 spotted with yellow, the occiput with red. 



It may be assumed as a general principle, in reference to the black spotted woodpeckers of 

 North America belonging to the restricted genus Picus, that whenever the crown is si)otted 

 with red or yellow either partly or entirely, the specimen is immature, and may probably be of 

 either sex, while the red is found only in the adult male, and confined to an occijjital line. 

 The only exceptions arc in Picus scalaris, where the entire upper part of the head is red spotted, 

 and P. nutUdlii, wliere the jiosterior half is tlius marked. In tlie young of this last species, 

 however, tlie anterior lialf of the liead above is similarly spotted with red. 



