142 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Ridgway (1914) gives a full description of tliis form, which is worth 

 quoting in view of his remarks as to its status ; he describes it as — 



Similar to /S. v. varius, but with much less white on back, this forming two defi- 

 nite but broken stripes, converging posteriorly ; nape always with more or less 

 of red, under parts less strongly tinged with yellow, and wing and tail averaging 

 decidedly longer; adult male with red of throat more extended, both laterally 

 and posteriorly, covering malar region (except anterior portion), where meeting 

 white sub-auricular stripe ; adult female with at least lower half of throat red 

 (sometimes whole throat red, only the chin being white) ; young much darker 

 above than corresponding stage of Sf. v. varius, the pileum dark sooty slate, white 

 markings on back less brownish, and under parts much less yellowish, the chest 

 and foreneck brownish gray or grayish brown (instead of huffy brown), and 

 usually less distinctly barred or lunulated with dusky. 



On account of the conspicuous difference in coloration of the yoiuig, definite 

 difference in color pattern of back, head, and neck in adults, and comparative 

 rarity of intermediate specimens (which are far less common, relatively, than in 

 the case of Colaptes), I believe that it would be better to consider this form as 

 specifically distinct from S. varius. It is true that specimens do occur that are 

 intermediate between 8. nuchalis and 8. varius, as well as between the former 

 and 8. ruier; but they may be (and I believe they are) hybrids ; certainly there is 

 no more reason for not considering them as such than in the case of Colaptes; 

 and if 8. nuchalis is to be considered as merely a subspecies of 8. varius then, 

 most certainly, must 8. ruler also. 



Mr. Ridgway (1877) says of its haunts: 



Throughout the country between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains, 

 the red-naped woodpecker is a common species in suitable localities. Its favorite 

 summer-haunts are the groves of large aspens near the head of the upper caiions, 

 high up in the mountains, and for this reason we found it more abundant in the 

 Wahsatch and Uintah region than elsewhere ; indeed, but a single individual was 

 observed on the Sierra Nevada, and this one was obtained on the eastern slope of 

 the range, near Carson City. It was very rare throughout western Nevada, but 

 became abundant as we approached the higher mountains in the eastern portion 

 of the State. Among the aspen groves in Parley's Park, as well as in similar 

 places throughout that portion of the country, it was by far the most abundant 

 of the Woodpeckers; and it seemed to be as strictly confined to the aspens as 

 /S. thyroideus was to the pines. 



The Weydemeyers (1928) say that, in northwestern Montana, "it 

 occurs most abundantly and typically in mixed broad-leaf and conifer 

 associations along streams, where it nests regularly. It ranges less 

 commonly into virgin forests of fir, larch, yellow pine, and hemlock 

 {Tsuffa heterophylla) in the valleys; and into arborvitae, lodgepole 

 pine, and spruce woods of the foothills. Occasional birds are seen in 

 alpine fir and spruce woods upward to the lower borders of the Hud- 

 sonian zone." 



Courtship. — M, P, Skinner says in his notes: "On May 13, 1915, I 

 saw a red-naped sapsucker drumming on a hollow, dead lodgepole 

 pine ; soon he flew to the top of another pine, where his mate was, and 

 the two began bobbing and curtsying in true cake-walk fashion much 



