PICID^ — THE WOODPECKERS. 505 



var. liarrisi. A specimen collected by Mr. Hepburn at Caribou, on the Upper 

 Fraser, is absolutely unclistinguishable from typical P. canadensis in size 

 and markings. 



We now come to the western race or variety, hardly to be called species, 

 the P. harrisi of Audubon. Here the extreme of condition most opposed to 

 typical villosus is shown by the entire absence of white on the exposed sur- 

 face of the wing, except on the outer webs of the four or five longest prima- 

 ries, where the spots are very small. (We have never seen them entirely 

 wanting.) The white of the back, too, may be normal in amount, or else 

 much restricted. Concealed white spots on some of the feathers will be 

 seen on raising them. The white of tail-feathers sometimes shows black 

 spots or blotches, especially on the inner web of the second. These features 

 belong more especially to specimens from the coast region of Oregon and 

 Washington. 



Proceeding eastward from the ISTorthern Pacific Coast we next find speci- 

 mens showing a few white streaks on the greater coverts and next on the 

 middle coverts. The spots on the secondaries, too, begin to show themselves ; 

 but as a general rule they do not occur on the innermost of the greater 

 coverts and of the secondaries. This, therefore, may be considered as the 

 limit of a variety, characterized by the absence at least of spots in these 

 members of the wing. 



With the variation in spots in the western variety we have, as already 

 remarked, differences in amount of white on the tail and the back, as well as 

 in the color of the belly, which is sometimes pure white, sometimes of a 

 smoky gray ; this latter variation not at all parallel with other differences or 

 with geographical distribution, and equally observable in eastern villosus. 

 The size, too, varies somewhat, but not to the same extent as on the Atlantic 

 side. Here, however, we have Ficics jardini of Mexico and Central America, 

 as the small southern race, absolutely undistinguishable from dark-breasted 

 Oregon specimens, except in size (length, 7.00 ; wing, 3.90 ; bill above, .85), 

 and perhaps a more fulvous tinge on the under parts. The specimens before 

 me have one or two black spots on the inner web of the next to the outer 

 tail-feather, as in darker varieties of harrisi, hwt these are not symmetrical 

 or constant in either, and are to be looked on as mere indications of the 

 general tendency to melanism. 



Habits. This common and familiar species of Woodpecker has an ex- 

 tended range throughout eastern North America. Specimens in the Smith- 

 sonian Institution have been collected from almost every portion of North 

 America east of the Eocky Mountains. Wilson speaks of it as common 

 throughout the continent from Hudson's Bay to Carolina and Georgia. Mr. 

 Audubon, who regarded Picus martinm, P. phiUvpsi, and P. canadensis as dis- 

 tinct species, instead of varieties of this Woodpecker, states, in regard to its dis- 

 tribution, that the P. villosus is a constant resident both in the maritime and 

 inland districts from Texas to New Hampshire, as well as in all the wooded 



VOL. II. 64 



