PICIDJE : WOODPECKERS. 



489 



454. 



web, on inner web white with black bars and spots ; intermediate tail-feathei-s black ; outer- 

 most regularly barred with black and white ; next to outermost thus barred at end only. Bill 

 blackish ; feet plumbeous ; iris probably red. Size of the others, or rather less. 9 without 

 red on head. A peculiar species, abounding in the valley of the Gila and Lower Colorado, and 

 southward, where it nests usually in the giant cactuses. 



MELANER'PES. (Gr. fieXas, melas, black; fpirrjs, /<e?7>es, a creeper.) Tricolor Wood- 

 peckers. Bill about as long as head, depressed at base, compressed beyond, culmeu and gonys 

 ridged but curved throughout, sides of upper mandible distinctly ridged but a little way, end of 

 bill pointed with little bevelling ; nasal tufts small, not concealing nostrils. Outer posterior 

 and anterior toes of equal lengths. Wings pointed by 3d, 4th, and 5th quills ; 2d shorter than 

 6th ; 1st spurious. Plumage lustrous and " broad " in coloration, with black, white, and red in 

 masses, little or not spotty or streaky. Sexes alike and young different, or sexes unlike and 

 young similar. Tlie two species are very different, requiring no analysis of their characters. 

 M. erjrthroce'phalus. (Gr. epvdpos, eruthros, red ; KfCpaXri, kephale, head. Fig. 340.) Red- 

 headed Woodpecker. Tricolor. $ ^ , ixAvli: Beautifully tricolor with " the red. white, 

 and blue." Back, wings and tail glossy blue-black; seconda- 

 ries, upper tail-coverts, under wing-coverts, under parts from 

 the breast, and ends of some outer tail-feathers, white. Whole 

 head, neck and fore breast crimson, usually black-bordered 

 where adjoining the white. The white of the wings and rump 

 is pure ; that of belly usually tinged with ochraceous or red- 

 dish ; the white quills have black shafts. The red feathers 

 are stiffish and somewhat bristly in their colored portions. 

 The gloss is sometimes green instead of blue. BOl and feet 

 dusky horn-color. Iris bi'own. Length 8.50-9.50; extent 

 16.00-18.00 ; wing 5.00-5.50 ; tail 3.50 ; bill 1.00-1.12 ; whole 

 foot 1.67. J9> young: The red parts of the adult gray, 

 streaked with dusky ; the red appears in irregular patches. 

 Feathers of back and wing-coverts skirted with light gray, 

 and mixed with concealed whitish, in bars. Primaries and 

 tail-feathers tipped and edged vnXh. white. White of seconda- 

 ries broken with black bars or spots. At a very early age, 

 whole under parts streaked with dusky much like the head, 

 but these parts whiten before the head reddens. Eastern U. S. 

 and British Provinces, irregularly rare or common northerly, 

 abounding in most U. S. localities ; common N. to 49° along 

 Red River of the North ; W. to Rocky Mts., sometimes to 

 Utah and California ; migratory in most sections. A very familiar bird, in orchards and c^ar- 

 dens as well as in the woods, conspicuous with its gay tricolor plumage, and a great genius, no 

 less brilliant and versatile in character than in plumage — very accomplished, of endless re- 

 sources, with tricks and manners enough to fill the rest of this volume with good reading 

 matter ! Feeds much on acorns, nuts, berries, and various fruits as well as upon insects, 

 and sometimes lays up a store, like the Californian Woodpecker. Nest anywhere in M'ood, 

 preferably the blasted top of a tree. Eggs 5 or 6, glassy and spheroidal as usual in the family, 

 1.10 to 1.15 long, 0.80 to 0.90 broad. Two broods southeriy. 



M. formici'vorus bairdi. (Lat. formica, an ant; voro, I devour. To S. F. Baird ; our species 

 a variety of the Mexican one. Fig 341.) Californian Woodpecker. $ 9 : Glossy blue- 

 black ; rump, bases of all the quills, edge of the wing, and under parts from the breast, white ; 

 sides with sparse black streaks; forehead squarely white, continuous with a stripe down in front 

 of the eyes and thence broadly encircling the throat, there becoming yellowish; this cuts oflf the 



Fig. 340. — Red -headed Wood- 

 pecker, reduced. (Sbeppard del. 

 Nichols sc.) 



