PICID^: WOODPECKERS. 



491 



Fig. 343. — Lewis' Woodpecker, reduced. (Slieppard del. 

 Nichols sc.) 



A narrow distinct collar around back of neck, and breast, hoary bluish-gray, gradually brighten- 

 ing behind on the under parts to intense rose-red or lake, delicately pencilled in hair lines with 



the hoary-gray. No white on wings or 



tail, their under surfaces simply black. 

 Bill blackish ; feet greenish-plumbeous. 

 Iris brown. Length 10.00-11.00; extent 

 20.00-22.00; wing 6.50-7-00; tail 4.50; 

 bill 1.20. Young: Little lustre at first, 

 but this soon appears, before any red. 

 Little or no trace of the hoary collar or 

 crimson mask ; face sooty-black ; throat 

 .and breast mixed fuscous and gray, chang- 

 ing on the belly to sooty-black, tinged or 

 slashed here and there with red. The 

 hoary and lake-red are established with 

 the feathers that are of the bristly charac- 

 ter above described. A remarkable bird, 

 inhabiting wooded mountainous parts of 

 the West, especially the pine-belt, Eocky 

 Mts. to the Pacific, U. S. and British Col- 

 umbia. It is found with Clarke's crow 

 and Steller's jay ; wild and wary, like our 

 Hylotomus ; keeps high up in the trees, 

 and in flying looks more like a crow than a woodpecker. Its aerial excursions are very con- 

 spicuous. Nest and eggs as usual ; size of eggs 1.12 X 0.95. 



COLAP'TES. (Gr. KoKanT-hs, kolaptes, a chisel, hammer.) Gilded Woodpeckers. Flick- 

 ers. Bill about as long as head, slender and weak for this family, without any lateral ridges or 

 bevelling, pointed without truncation, culmen and commissure curved, gonys nearly straight, 

 only about half as long as culmen, nostinls not concealed by the slight nasal tufts; culmen and 



gonys, however, both ridged. 

 Outer posterior toe shorter 

 than the outer anterior ; in- 

 ner posterior verj short. 

 Wings long, pointed by 3d 

 to 6th quills; 2d shorter 

 than 7th ; 1st about -| the 

 2d. Tail lengthened. Sexes 

 generally alike, but distin- 

 guishable by positive marks 

 about head. Plumage highly 

 variegated and very showy. 

 Under parts with numerous 

 circular black spots on a 

 pale ground. A large black 

 pectoral crescent. Rump 

 snowy-white. Back, wing- 

 FiG. 344. — Flicker, nat. size. (Ad nat. del. E. C.) covcrts and innermost quills 



brown with an olive or lilac shade, and thickly barred with black; quills and tail black, ex- 

 cepting as below stated ; red or black cheek patches in ^ , wanting in 9 . About a foot 

 long ; wing about 6.00; tail 4.50. A beautiful genus, of 6 American species, 3 of N. Am. 



