PICARIAE— PIOIDAE— PICUS STKICKLANDI, 389 



PICUS STRICKLANDI, Malherbe. 



Strickland's l¥oodpecker. 



Picus striclclandii, Henshaw, Am. Sportsman, v, Feb. 20, 1875, 328 (introduced into 

 United States fanna). 



Sp. char.— Above smoky-brown, darker on the head. Male with nuchal band of 

 crimson • wanting in female. Quills with a series of small rounded white spots on both 

 their outer and inner webs, which, on the inner webs of the tertiaries, take the form of 

 short bars. A line of white beginning at the anterior corner of the eye above, and 

 extending backward to the nape, meets a similar line which extends from the gape, 

 thus forming a circle, which incloses a patch of brown behind the eye. The under 

 parts generally profusely spotted with blackish-brown spots, gradually becoming 

 smaller on the throat, and, in some specimens, almost wanting here. Under tail cov- 

 erts barred transversly with same. Tail blackish-brown above, darker below. Two 

 outer tail-feathers barred with white, leaving, however, the inner web of the second 

 immaculate except at tip. 



Hab.— Guateuiala; Mexico; Arizona (Henshaw). 



This rare woodpecker is a common species on the foothills of the 

 Chiricahua Mountains, where it was one of the first birds that met my 

 eye when the section where it abounds was first entered. Whether it 

 extends upward, and finds its home during a portion of the year among- the 

 pines that here begin at an altitude of about 1,000 feet, I do not know. So 

 far as I could ascertain, at this season at least, it is confined to the region of 

 the oaks, ranging from about 4,000 to 7,000 feet, thus inhabiting a region 

 about midway between the low valleys and the mountain districts proper. 

 Here they appeared to be perfectly at home, climbing over the trunks of 

 the oaks with the same ease and rapidity of movement that distinguish the 

 motions of the Downy or Hairy Woodpecker; though their habits, in so far as 

 they are at all peculiar, are, perhaps, best comparable to those of the Red- 

 cockaded Woodpecker of the South (P. horealis), especially their custom of 

 moving about in small companies of from five to fifteen, though they were 

 occasionally found singly or in pairs. 



When in pursuit of food, they almost always alighted near the base of 

 the trees, gradually ascending, and making their way along the smaller limbs, 

 and even out among the foliage, appearing to prefer to secure their food by 

 a careful search rather than by the hard labor of cutting into the wood in 

 the way the Hairy Woodpecker employs its strength. 



