94 BULLETIN 17 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



kicking in an effort to get rid of its curions assailant. Tlie woodpecker left 

 but did not seem to be particularly frightened, as lie sat on the wooden curb of 

 the well until he was left alone again. 



Plumages. — The young are hatched naked but acquire the juvenal 

 plumage before leaving the nest. In three young males in my col- 

 lection, taken on June 20, August 4, and August 30, the upper parts 

 are much like those of the adult male, but the crown is more or less 

 invaded with scarlet or vermilion-tipped feathers, sometimes with 

 only a few scattered feathers and sometimes covering the whole 

 crown and nape; they are more heavily spotted on the breast and 

 more heavily barred on the belly than are the fall adults, and these 

 markings are dark sepia, instead of black, and less well defined than 

 in adults; the bills are smaller and weaker. Mr. Swarth (1904) says: 

 "In the young female, besides occupying a less extensive surface, the 

 red is less intense than in the male, and not as solid, that is there is 

 always more or less brown showing through. The red cap of the 

 juvenile bird seems to be worn but a short time, as a young female 

 taken September 4 has hardly a trace of it remaining." 



Apparently the juvenal plumage is molted, including the wings and 

 tail, late in August or September, when the first winter plumage, 

 which is practically indistinguishable from that of the adult, is ac- 

 quired, Mr. Swarth (1904) says of the molt of the adult: 



The Arizona woodpecker commences to moult about the middle of July, and 

 by the first week in September the new plumage is almost completely acquired. 

 The plumage of the breast, abdomen, and lower parts generally, seems to be the 

 first to be renewed, while the remiges, rectrices and feathers of the interscapu- 

 lar region are the last to get their growth. An old female shot on September 3 

 had practically completed its moult, with the exception of the tail feathers, none 

 of which were over half an inch long; while several specimens of both sexes, 

 taken during the last two weel^s in August, are in nearly perfect autumnal 

 plumage, except for some small patches of old feathers in the interscapular 

 region. Fall specimens are considerably darker on the back than birds taken 

 during the spring and summer, but the change is undoubtedly due to fading of 

 the plumage, as birds taken in the late winter and early spring, show not the 

 slightest traces of moult, and a series of birds taken from February to July, 

 show plainly the gradual change of coloration. Singularly enough the pileum 

 and back of the neck does not seem to fade as the dorsum does, and conse- 

 quently, while birds in fresh fall plumage are of practically uniform coloration 

 on the upijer parts, specimens taken in the late spring and summer have the head 

 and neck abruptly darker than the back and exposed portion of the wings. 

 * * * Of twenty-four specimens from this region [Arizona] four show more 

 or less traces of white bars across the rump ; one of these is a male in nuptial 

 plumage, one a male in freshly acquired autumnal plumage, one a female in 

 nuptial plumage (this specimen has some faint indications of white bars on some 

 of the scapulars as well), and one is a young male. Another spring female has 

 some white bars on the scapulars but none on the rump. Presumably this is a 

 tendency toward the Mexican species Dryobates stricklandi. 



Food. — Very little seems to be recorded on the food of the Arizona 

 woodpecker, which probably does not differ greatly from that of 



