38 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



this race in various collections, but, so far as I know, no authentic 

 eggs have ever found their way into any American collection. Very 

 little exploration has been done in the interior of the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands, and we know very little about the habits of its birds. 



DRYOBATES VILLOSUS TERRAENOVAE Batchelder 

 NEWFOUNDLAND WOODPECKER 



HABITS 



Charles F. Batchelder (1908), who discovered and described this 

 race of the hairy woodpecker, characterized it as — 



Similar to typical Dryohates villosus, but slightly larger, the black areas of the 

 upper parts increased, the white areas reduced both in number and in size, 

 especially in the remiges and wing coverts. * * * Dryolates villosus terrae- 

 novae is much smaller than D. v. leucomelas, and is, of course, even more re- 

 mote from it in coloring than from true villosus. Between it and D. v. hijloscopus 

 and D. v. monticola there is a striking resemblance in coloring, but the wide 

 area — occupied throughout its extent either by villosus or by leucomelas — that 

 intervenes between the ranges of these two Western siibspecies and that of 

 terracnovae, precludes the possibility of immediate intergi'adation, while the 

 utter dissimilarity of the climatic conditions of their respective habitats forbids 

 the supposition that like causes in environment have developed like characters; 

 apparently this is a case where superficial resemblances have arisen entirely 

 independently of climatic influences. 



I found the Newfoundland woodpecker fairly common in the heavily 

 timbered valleys of the Fox Island and Sandy Rivers in Newfound- 

 land in 1912. The timber in the flat river bottom and on the islands 

 in the Fox Island River is almost wholly made up of deciduous trees, 

 mainly poplar, canoe birch, ash, mountain ash (which grows to a very 

 large size), and alder, mixed with a few spruces. On the surround- 

 ing hillsides the forest growth consists mainly of firs and spruces, 

 with plenty of canoe and yellow birches, poplars, larches, and moun- 

 tain ashes. The Sandy River runs through a fairly level and heavily 

 timbered region, with forests of large firs, red, white, and black 

 spruces, mixed with some birches and poplars. These two regions 

 were the only places where we found this and the downy woodpecker, 

 nesting in the deciduous trees. It has been observed by others in other 

 places, and doubtless it occurs wherever there is heavy timber, with a 

 fair sprinkling of deciduous trees, mainly along the streams and about 

 the shores of lakes. 



I can find nothing noted on its habits that is in any way diflFerent 

 from those of the other eastern races. So far as I Imow, its eggs have 

 never been taken. 



