598 



SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — PI CARLE — PICI. 



ening behind ou imder parts to iutense rose-red or lake, delicately pencilled in hair lines with 

 hoary-gray. No white on wings or tail, their under surfaces simply black. Bill blackish ; feet 

 greenish-plumbeous. Iris brown. Length J U.OO- 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 hoary collar or crimson mask ; face sooty-black ; throat and breast mixed fuscous 

 and gray, changing ou 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 character above de- 

 scribed. A remarkable bird, inhabiting wooded mountainous parts of the West, especially the 

 pine- belt. Rocky Mts. to the Pacific, U. S. and adjoining British Provinces of Alberta and 

 British Columbia ; E. regularly to the Black Hills of S. Dakota, casually to Kansas ; it was 

 discovered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition near Helena, Mont., Sat., July 20, 1805. It is 

 found with Clark's Crow and Steller's Jay ; is wild and wary like the Pileated Woodpecker, 

 but a much less noisy and more sedate bird than most of the tribe ; keeps high up in trees, 

 and in fiying looks more like a Crow than a Woodpecker. Its aerial excursions are very 

 conspicuous, especially when it is foraging for insects like a Flycatcher ; in ordinary flight it 

 winnows the air steadily, in direct courses, unlike the cycloidal curves made by most W(Kjd- 

 peckers, which almost close the wings as they loop along. It is resident, or only migratory from 

 extremes of its range in latitude or altitude ; I have observed it in summer from Montana to 

 Arizona. Nidification is not peculiar; coniferous trees are commonly selected for excavation, 

 which may be made to a depth of two feet or more, with a hole that hardly admits the hand. 

 The eggs are laid in May and June, 5-9 in number, usually 6-8, averaging about 1.05 X 0.80, 

 but ranging iu length from 0.95 to 1.15, and in breadth from 0.65 to 0.85. M. torquatiis, 

 A. 0. U. Lists. 



COLAP'TES. (Gr. KoXanTT^s, kokipfes, 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 with- 

 out truncation ; culinen and 

 commissure curved, gonys 

 nearly straight, only about 

 half as long as culmen ; 

 nostrils not concealed by 

 the slight nasal tufts ; cul- 

 men and gonys, hctwever, 

 both ridged. Outer poste- 

 rior toe shorter than outer 

 anterior ; inner posterior toe 

 very short. Wings long, 

 pointed by 3d to 6th quills ; 

 2d shorter than 7tli ; 1st 

 about I the 2d. Tail length- 

 ened. Sexesgenerally alike, 



but distinguishable by posi- 

 (Ad. nat. del. EC) .. , i . , , 



tive 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-coverts, 

 and innermost quills brown with an olive or lilac shade, and thickly barred with black ; quills 

 and tail black, excepting as l)elow stated; red or black cheek patches in ^, wanting in ?. 

 About 12.00 long; wing about G.OO; tail 4.50. A beautiful genus, of several American spe- 

 cies, besides those of North America. 



Fig 412. 



Flicker, nat size. 



