214 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



[Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis Baiid. Red-xaped Sapsucker. In the 'History ot North 

 American Birds,' Dr. Brewer, writing of the Red-naped Sapsucker, reported that "two speci- 

 mens of this race have been taken in New England, — one in New Hampshire b_v Mr. William 

 Brewster, the other in Cambridge by Mr. Ilenshaw."' The birds to which this statement relates 

 were referred to nuchalis for a time because they possessed the red nnchal crescent which was 

 then believed to be peculiar to that form. The crescent, however, was much narrower and less 

 well defined than it usually is in typical examples of Red-naped Sapsuckers. As it is now 

 definitely known that eastern specimens of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker sometimes have this 

 marking, there are no longer any grounds for believing that the true Red-naped Sapsucker has 

 ever occurred in New England.] 



III. Melanerpes erythrocephalus (Linn.). 

 Red-headed Woodpecker. 



Of irregular occurrence at all seasons, sometimes in considerable numbers. 



NESTING DATE. 



June 17, 1882, nest- and at least two eggs, birds seen at hole, East VVatertown, C. R. 

 Lamb. 



The case of the Red-headed Woodpecker is peculiar. Ordinarily the beau- 

 tiful bird is of rare occurrence in the Cambridge Region, while sometimes for 

 years in succession it is not reported by any of our local observers; then will 

 come a season when it is common or even abundant. It visits us oftenest during 

 migration, and most numerously in October and November. Whenever there 

 is a well-marked autumnal flight, some of the birds which compose it usually 

 linger into or even through the following winter, and a very few occasionally 

 remain to breed the next simimer. The greatest influx that has taken place 

 within my personal recollection occurred in the autumn of 1881 when, for three 

 or four weeks, Red-headed Woodpeckers literally swarmed about Cambridge 

 and Boston. They were not generally distributed, but seemed to congregate 

 in certain localities and to prefer small, open groves of old, deciduous trees to 

 more extensive and varied woods. Within the Cambridge Region they were 

 seen in the greatest numbers among the oaks and beeches about the shores of 

 Fresh Pond ; in the mixed oak and chestnut woods lying to the westward of 



1 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, History of North American Birds, II, 1874, 543. 



2 No. 3726, collection of William Brewster. 



