PICOIDES ARCTICUS : BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER. 75 



and 6>j/r), for example, one of the anterior toes is 

 aborted, and the proper hind toe remains in place. In 

 one of the genera of PicumnidcB, however, there are like- 

 wise only three toes. How the peculiarity originated, or 

 what useful purpose in the bird's economy is subserved 

 by this unique anomaly, we are ignorant. It may be 

 gravely doubted that a special creative fiat was required 

 to remove the inner hind toe of a Woodpecker ; and 

 more reasonably presumed that supreme intelligence 

 was equal to the establishment of laws by the orderly 

 operation of which the modification in question was 

 from the beginning a foregone necessity. However this 

 may be, the loss of a digit does not appreciably interfere 

 with the bird's pursuit of happiness, nor affect in any 

 marked degree its methods of attaining that end, which 

 are the same as those employed by all its four-toed 

 relations. 



As implied in the name, the Black-backed Wood- 

 pecker is a boreal bird, finding the limit of its breeding 

 range, as well as of its permanent abode, in the forests 

 of northern New England, in the Canadian Fauna, and 

 being for the rest only a winter visitor, of more or less 

 rarity according to the weather or other extrinsic condi- 

 tions of its movements. In Connecticut, according to 

 Mr. Merriam, it is a rare winter visitor (B. Conn., 1877, 

 p. 64). The Massachusetts records are more numerous: 

 for instance, see Allen, Pr. Essex Inst., iv, 1864, p. 52; 

 Coues, ibid., v, 1868, p. 262 ; Allen, Am. Nat., iii, 1870, 

 p. 572 ; Purdie, ibid., vii, 1873, p. 693 ; Allen, Bull. Essex 

 Inst., X, 1878, p. 20; Deane, Bull. Nutt. Club, v, 1880, 

 p. 56; Brewster, ibid., vi, 1881, p. 182. 



The general habits and mode of nesting are in no wise 

 peculiar. The eggs measure about 1.00X0.80. 



