SUMMER BIRDS OF THE REDWOODS 



peckers in more rigorous climates neglect to make similar pro- 

 vision for the future. 



This interesting bird should be more generally known, as it 

 is so conspicuous in its dress and habits, so generally distributed 

 and abundant throughout the state of California, and so 

 famous among scientists for its singular habit. Its head is sur- 

 mounted with a cap of flaming scarlet. Its back is a dark, 

 glossy blue-black, the same color appearing on the breast also. 

 Its under parts, with the above exception, are white, tinged 

 with sulphur yellow, while patches of pure white appear on 

 the wings and rump. TTie note of the California woodpecker 

 is a loud J^a-rac'-J^a, k<i-rac-ka, k^-rac-f^a^ although its most 

 familiar call is the resonant rapping on the dead limb, which 

 may be heard at a surprisingly long distance in the forest 

 silence. 



Other woodpeckers there are in these far-reaching wilder- 

 nesses of forest land — the great log-cock, with one exception 

 the largest American representative of his family, the more 

 humbly attired Harris's woodpecker, adorned with only a dash 

 of scarlet on the back of his head, and otherwise black and 

 white; and at times the little Gairdner's woodpecker, his 

 counterpart in miniature. 



There is another bird which, if we are attentive in our red- 

 wood rambles, we shall be sure to meet, in habits somewhat 

 like a woodpecker, although the little fellow is not more than 

 half the size of the smallest of that tribe. Its manners are 

 much less animated as it quietly creeps about the great red- 

 wood trunks, uttering a low, faint, lisping monosyllable. It 

 is the California brown creeper, a bird more nearly related to 

 the kinglets and wrens than to the woodpeckers, despite its 



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