514 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Boundary SurV' ey. They differed slightly in their habits from the P. harrisi, 

 generally hunting for insects on the majjles, alders, and stunted oaks, rather 

 than on the pine-trees. Specimens were taken on Vancouver Island, Sumass 

 Prairie, Colville, and the west slope of the Eocky Mountains at an altitude 

 of seven thousand feet above the sea-level. 



Mr. Ridgway found this Woodpecker to be unaccountably rare in tlie 

 Sierra Nevada and all portions of the Great Basin, as well as in the AA'^ah- 

 satch and: Uintah Mountains, even in places where the P. harrisi was at all 

 times abundant. Indeed, he only met with it on two or three occasions, in 

 the fall : first in the Upper Humboldt Valley, in September, where it w^is 

 rare in the thickets along the streams ; and again in the Wahsatch Moun- 

 tains, wliere but a single brood of young was met with in August. 



An egg of this species from Oregon, obtained by Mr. Pdcksecker, is larger 

 than that of the puhescens, but similar in shape, being very nearly spherical. 

 It measures .96 of an inch in length by .85 in breadth. 



Subgenus DYCTIOPICUS, Bonap. 



Dydiopicus, Bonap. Ateiieo Ital. 1854, 8. (Type, Picus scalaris, Wagler.) 

 Dydiopipo, Cabanis & Hein. Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 74. (Same type.) 



Char. Small species, banded above transversely with black or brown and white. 



Of this group there are two sections, — one with the central tail-feathers 

 entirely black, from Mexico and the United States (three species) ; the other 

 with their feathers like the lateral black, banded or spotted with white 

 (three species from southern South America). The northern section is char- 

 acterized as follows : — 



Common Characters. All the larger coverts and quills with white spots becoming 

 transverse bands on innermost secondaries. Cheeks black with a supra-orbital and a 

 malar stripe of white. Back banded alternately with black and white, but not on upper 

 tail-coverts, nor four central tail-feathers. Beneath Avhitish, sides with elongated black 

 spots ; flanks and crissum transversely barred. Tail-feathers, except as mentioned, with 

 spots or tranverse bars of black. Head of male with red patch above (restricted in 

 nuttalli), each feather with a white spot below the red. Female without red. 



The characters of the species scalaris, with its varieties, and nuttalli, will 

 be found under Picus. 



