568 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



close relationship to skins from the Eio Grande, and do not approach the 

 Guatemalan bird in the peculiar characters just referred to, except in the 

 shortness and curvature of the bill. In one specimen there is an approach 

 to the Bogotan in a moderate degree of barring on the white inner edgings 

 of the tertials ; in the rest, however, they are continuously white. 



Habits. This handsome Woodpecker, distinguished both by the remark- 

 able beauty of its plumage and the peculiarity of its provident habits, has a 

 widely extended area of distribution, covering the Pacific Coast, from Oregon 

 throughout Mexico. In Central America it is replaced by the variety 

 striatipectiis, and in New Grenada by the var. flavigula, while at Cape St. 

 Lucas we find another local form, M. angustifrons. So far as we have the 

 means of ascertaining their habits, we find no mention of any essential dif- 

 ferences in this respect among these races. 



Suckley and Cooper did not meet with this bird in "Washington Territory, 

 and Mr. Lord met with it in abundance on his journey from Yreka to the 

 boundary line of British Columbia. Mr. Dresser did not observe it at San 

 Antonio. Mr. Clark met with it at the Coppermines, in New Mexico, in great 

 numbers, and feeding principally among the oaks. Lieutenant Couch found 

 it in the recesses of the Sierra Madre quite common and very tame, resort- 

 ing to high trees in search of its food. He did not meet with it east of the 

 Sierra Madre. Dr. Kennerly first observed it in the vicinity of Santa Cruz, 

 where it was very frequent on the mountain-slopes, always preferring the 

 tallest trees, but very shy, and it was with difficulty that a specimen 

 could be procured. Mr. Nuttall, who first added this bird to our fauna, 

 speaks of it as very plentiful in the forests around Santa Barbara. Between 

 that region and the Pueblo de los Angeles, Dr. Gambel met with it in great 

 abundance, although neither writer makes mention of any peculiarities of 

 habit. Mr. Emanuel Samuels met with it in and around Petaluma, where 

 he obtained the eggs. 



Dr. Newberry, in his Report on the zoology of Lieutenant Williamson's 

 route (P. R. R. Reports, VT), states that the range of this species extends to 

 the Columbia, and perhaps above, to the westward of the Cascade Range, 

 though more common in California than in Oregon. It was not found in 

 the Des Chutes Basin, nor in the Cascade Mountains. 



In the list of the birds of Guatemala given by Mr. Salvin in the Ibis, this 

 Woodpecker is mentioned (I, p. 137) as being found in the Central Region, 

 at Calderas, on the Volcan de Fuego, in forests of evergreen oaks, where it 

 feeds on acorns. 



Dr. Heermann describes it as among the noisiest as well as the most abun- 

 dant of the Woodpeckers of California. He speaks of it as catching insects 

 on the wing, after the manner of a Flycatcher, and mentions its very ex- 

 traordinary habit of digging small holes in the bark of the pine and tlie oak, 

 in which it stores acorns for its food in winter. He adds that one of these 

 acorns is placed in each hole, and is so tightly fitted or driven in that it is 



