PICID^: WOODPECKERS. 483 



438. P. vlllo'sus. (Lat.tn/tosus, hairy, shaggy, villous. Fig. 333.) Hairy Woodpeckkr. Spotted 

 aud Icugthwise streaked, but not bauded. Usually 9-1 U long ; outer tail -feathers wholly white. 

 Back blat'k, with a long white stripe down the middle. Quills and icing-coverts with a i)ro- 

 fusion of white spots ; usually 6-7 pairs on the primaries, several on all the secondaries, aud 

 one or more ou each of the coverts. Four middle tail-feathers black ; next pair black aud 

 white ; next two pairs white, as stated. Under parts white. Crown and sides of head black, 

 with a white stripe over aud behind the eye; another from the nasal feathers running below 

 the eye to spread on the side of the neck; a scarlet nuchal band in the ^, sometimes broken 

 in two, wanting in the 9 • Young with the crown mostly red or bronzy, or even yellowish. 

 Eastern N. Am., abundant. Length usually 9.00-10.00 ; extent 15.50-17.50 ; wing 4.50-5.00 ; 

 tail 3.50 ; bill 1.12 ; whole foot 1.66. Varies greatly in size, mainly according to latitude. In 

 the West, shades directly into P. v. harrisi, by disappearance of the sp(jts from tlie coverts and 

 inner secondaries ; the change occurs on the Eastern slopes of the Rocky Mts. One of the 

 common Eastern U. S. woodpeckers, in British Am. trending westward to the Pacific iu 

 Alaska ; but not so often noticed as the little P. pubescens, as it is less familiar, and keeps more 

 in the woods. Resident wherever occumng. Eggs 4-6 or 7, 1.00 X 0.75. 



a. major. Northern: very large and hoary. Length up to 11.00 ; wing over 5.00; tail 

 nearly 4.00 ; whole foot 1.90 ; bill 1.50 ! (P. leiicomelas Bodd.) 



b. medius. The ordinary bird, as above. 



c. minor. Southern : very small and dark. Grading dov^-n to 8.00, thus within an inch of 

 the maximum o^ P. pubescens. (P. auduboni Sw.) 



439. P. V. har'risi. (To Edward Harris.) Harris' Woodpecker. Exactly like otZZosms, except- 

 ing fewer wing-spots ; generally none ou the coverts and inner quills ; with specimens enough 

 we can see the spots disappear one by one. Generally white below, but in some regions 

 smoky-gray (a thing not observed in Eastern birds), such being especially the case on the 

 Pacific slopes, where the smoky-bellied birds also somethnes acquire a few thin black stripes 

 on the sides : those from the interior being quite purely white below. Size of an average 

 P. villosus. Rocky Mts. to the Pacific, U. S. 



1 40. P. pubes'cens. (Lat. pubescens, coming to puberty ; i. e. hairy. Fig. 334.) Downy W^ood- 

 PECKER. Usually 6-7 long ; outer tail-feathers barred with black and white. Exactly like 

 P. villosus, except in these respects. Length 6.00-7.00 ; 

 extent 11.00-12.00; wing 3.50-4.00; tail under 3.00: 

 hill about 0.66; whole foot 1.25. Eastern N. Am., 

 abundant in orchards, and all wooded places. Range 

 substantially the same as that of the hairy woodpecker, 

 but in most U. S. localities the more abundant of the 

 two ; on the whole rather more southerly. This is the 

 little spotted bird that bores the apple-trees so persist- 

 ently ; but it does not appear to hurt them. There is 

 no such difference in the character of the plumage as 

 the terms "downy" and " hairy" imply. Eggs about Fig. 334. —Downy Woodpecker, uat. size. 

 6,0.85X0.70. (Adnat. del.E.C.) 



441. P. p. gaird'neri, (To Dr. Meredith Gairdner, a Scotch naturalist.) Bearing the same relation 

 to P. pubescens that harrisi does t<» P. villosus ; the wing-spots few or wanting on the inner 

 quills aud the coverts, the belly smoky-gray in some localities. Rocky Mts. to the Pacific, 

 U. S., but much rarer than P. pubescens is in the East, and almost wanting in much of the 

 Rocky Mt. region, where P. harrisi abounds. 

 152. XENOPI'CUS. (Gr. ^eVor, xenos, rare, foreign.) Masked Woodpeckers. Form as in 

 Picus proper. Body uniformly black. Head white. Tongue said to be but little more 

 extensible than in Sphyropicus (not verified by me). 



