BIKDS — PICIDAE — PICUS VILLOSUS, 85 



Variety minor. — Southern States. 



Picus avdubonii, Swainsov, F. B. A. 1831, 306.— Trtoeau, J. A. N. Sc. Ph. VII, 1837, 404, (very young male, 

 with crown spotted with yellow.) — Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 194 ; pi. 417. — Ib. Birds Amor. IV, 

 1842, 259 ; pi. 265. -Ndtt. Man. I, 2d ed. 1840, 684. 



gp. Ch. Above black, with a white band down the middle of the back. All the larger wing coverts and the quills with 



conspicuous spots of white. Two white stripes on each side of the head ; the upper scarcely confluent behind, the lower not at 

 all so ; two black stripes confluent with the black of the nape. Beneath white. Three outer tail feathers with the e.xposed 

 portions white. Length 8 to 11 inches. 



Male, with a nuchal scarlet crest covering the white, and interrupted in the middle. Immature bird with more or less of the 

 crown spotted with red or yellow, or both. 



Hab. — North America, to the eastern base of the Rocky mountains. 



In this species the upper parts are of a glossy black ; the feathers on the middle line of the 

 back white, usually with a little black on the outer edge. This white stripe thus produced 

 extends from the upper part of the back to the rump ; the upper tail coverts and tail feathers 

 black. The under parts are nearly pure white. The scapulars are black ; all the exposed 

 larger wing coverts, however, have each a rounded spot of white. The outer webs of all the 

 quills have numerous spots of white, except the first, which is unspotted, and the second, which 

 has only one spot at the base ; the remaining primaries have six each, except the third and the 

 three innermost, which have five. The secondaries have four on their exposed portions. The 

 inner webs of the quills are similarly spotted. 



In the male there is a rather narrow nuchal band of scarlet interrupted a little in the middle. 

 This is about a quarter of an inch long ; all the feathers belonging to it, brown at the base, 

 white in the middle, and scarlet at the end. The white is continuous with a broad patch on 

 each side the crown, commencing a little above the anterior canthus of the eye, (rarely con- 

 tinuous with the brownish white bristly feathers at the base of the bill , the shafts of which are 

 tipped with black.) This white stripe then curves around the occiput to the nape (the two 

 almost meeting behind) and is seen through the red. In the female, where the red is wanting, 

 the white is very conspicuous, sometimes appearing almost continuous across the nape. A 

 second white stripe begins at the commissure, and passing a short distance below the eye, down 

 on the side of the neck, widens in curving round on its back and lower part. The two stripes 

 of opposite sides are separated in the lower neck or upper part of the back by a considerable 

 interval of black. 



These two white stripes of nearly equal width on the side of the head leave two black ones — 

 the upper one rather wider, the lower narrower than the white. The upper passes from the 

 forehead through the eye, involving considerably more of the lower eyelid than the upper, and 

 widening behind, passes round into the black of the back of the neck. The lower stripe 

 proceeds from the commissure downwards along the side of the throat, and widens considerably 

 on the sides of the lower neck, sending a short branch on to the side of the breast. The sides 

 of the body under the wings are, however, white, as are the under coverts, except a few black 

 blotches. 



The three outer tail feathers appear entirely white. There is, however, a very small blotch 

 at the extreme base of the inner web of the first, which in the second is perhaps an inch long, 

 and on the third leaves only an inch of the end white, with an area extending obliquely from 

 this white across the outer web to the base. The other feathers are black. 



As already stated, the female differs in the absence of the red crest. 



