PICID.E — THE WOODPECKERS. 5g5 



with in the neighborhood of Boston, though in the western part of Massa- 

 chusetts it is still to be found. In the collections of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution are specimens from Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, 

 Missouri, Louisiana, the Indian Territory, etc. Sir John Eichardson speaks 

 of it as ranging in summer as far north as the northern shores of Lake 

 Huron. He also remarks that in the Hudson Bay Museum there is a speci- 

 men from the banks of the Columbia Ptiver. Dr. Gambel, in his paper on 

 the birds of California, states that he saw many of them in a belt of oak tim- 

 ber near the Mission of St. Gabriel. As, however. Dr. Heermann did not 

 meet with it in California, and as no other collector has obtained specimens 

 in that State, this is probably a mistake. With the exception of Dr. Wood- 

 house, who speaks of having found this species in the Indian Territory and 

 in Texas, it is not mentioned by any of the government exploring parties. 

 It may therefore be assigned a range extending, in summer, as far north as 

 Labrador, and westward to the eastern slopes of the Eocky Mountains. 

 Throughout the year it is a permanent resident only of the more southern 

 States, where it is, however, much less abundant in summer than it is in 

 Pennsylvania. 



Wilson, at the time of his writing (1808), speaks of finding several of the 

 nests of this Woodpecker within the boundaries of the then city of Phila- 

 delphia, two of them being in buttonwood-trees and one in the decayed 

 limb of an elm. The parent birds made regular excursions to the woods 

 beyond the Schuylkill, and preserved a silence and circumspection in visiting 

 their nest entirely unlike their habits in their wilder places of residence. 

 The species is altogether migratory, visiting the Middle and Northern States 

 early in May and leaving in October. It begins the construction of its nest 

 almost immediately after its first appearance, as with other members of its 

 family, by excavations made in the trunk or larger limbs of trees, depositing 

 six white eggs on the bare wood. The cavities for their nests are made 

 almost exclusively in dead wood, rarely, if ever, in the living portion of the 

 tree. In Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, and the Carolinas, they have two 

 broods in a season, but farther north than this they rarely raise more than 

 one. Their eggs are usually six in number, and, like all the eggs of this 

 family, are pure white and translucent when fresh. They vary a little in 

 their shape, but are usually slightly more OA-al and less spherical than those 

 of several other species. Mr. Nuttall speaks of the eggs of this bird as 

 being said to be marked at the larger end with reddish spots. I have never 

 met with any thus marked, and as Mr. Nuttall does not give it as from his 

 own observations I have no doubt that it is a mistake. Mr. Paine, of 

 Eandolph, Vt., writes that he has only seen a single specimen of this 

 Woodpecker in that part of Vermont, while on the Avestern side of the 

 Green Mountains tliey are said to be very common. He adds that it is a 

 tradition among his older neighbors that these Woodpeckers were formerly 

 everywhere known throughout all portions of the State. 



