in Various Species of North American Birch. 179 



92. Picus villosus.* 



First plumage: male. Forehead Bpotted thickly with white; crown dull 

 ■scarlet, each feather subterminally spotted with white ; nuchal crescent 

 entirely wanting. Rest of upper parts dull dead black, marked and 

 spotted with white as in the adult. Lores yellowish-white, maxillary line 

 very faintly indicated. Beneath soiled yellowish-white. From a speci- 

 men in my collection shot at Upton, Me., August 1, 1874. The first 

 plumage of this species is exceedingly evanescent. The scarlet patch 

 upon the crown is soon lost, the feathers dropping out one by one ; a few 

 scattered ones, however, usually remain until the feathers of the nuchal 

 crescent have begun to appear. 



A female in first plumage (Upton, Me., August 20, 1874) differs so 

 little from adults as scarcely to require a detailed description. The black 

 of the upper parts, as in the male just described, is of a dead or plumbe- 

 ous cast. The crown is entirely unspotted. I have, however, seen speci- 

 mens which had the forehead spotted with white. 



93. Picus villosus harrisi. 

 First plumage : male. Differs from the adult only in having the fore- 

 head spotted with white, and a patch of scarlet covering the crown. 

 From a specimen in my cabinet collected by Mr. C. A. Allen at Nicasio, 



Cal., June 8, 1875. 



94. Picus pubescens. 



First plumage : male. Forehead and nape thickly spotted with white. 

 Crown deep scarlet ; no red on nape ; rest of upper parts marked as in the 

 adult, but the black duller. Beneath ashy -white, thickly streaked on the 

 sides of the breast and body with dusky ; on the sides of the abdomen 

 these dusky markings assume the character of broad though poorly defined 

 transverse bars. From a specimen in my cabinet collected at Upton, Me., 

 August 14, 1874. Several other young males show a considerable amount 

 of variation in the character and extent of the dusky markings beneath. 

 In one or two the streaks are nearly continuous across the breast and abdo- 

 men. A very young male (Upton, August 1, 1874) has the forehead and 



* As stated elsewhere, the young of most, if not all of the Woodpeckers, 

 regularly moult the wing and tail feathers with the rest of the first plumage. 

 No exceptions to this rule occur among large series of the common Xoitli 

 American species examined, and it may probably he found to hold good among 

 all excepting, perhaps, some highly specialized groups. Another peculiar feature 

 in the early development of the species most thoroughly investigated, and one 

 which is perhaps common to all the members of this family, is the fact that a 

 certain proportion of the females in first plumage possess to a greater or less 

 degree the adornments which in more advanced stages are peculiar to the 

 males alone, and which are lost with the first moult. Marked examples of this 

 are afforded by young females of Colaptes auratus, Picus pubescens, and others, of 

 which detailed descriptions are given in the text. 



