THE BANDED THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 95 
mark. Its breeding habits are not well known; but it 
probably breeds in all the large forests of Northern Maine, 
New Hampshire, and Vermont. 
I was so fortunate as to find two nests in the month of 
June, 1864, in the valley of the Magalloway River, about 
forty miles north of Lake Umbagog, Me. The holes were 
both excavated in hemlock stumps, about ten feet from the 
ground ; they were not over an inch and a half in diameter, 
and were about ten inches in depth: the bottom of the 
hole formed the nest, which, as with the other species, was 
nothing but a few chips and bits of wood. The first nest, 
found on the 15th of June, had three young birds, appar- 
ently about a week old. The second nest had three eggs: 
these were of a beautiful clear-white color, and the shells 
remarkably smooth to the touch. Their dimensions varied 
only from .83 to .85 inch in length, by .75 to .77 inch in 
breadth. 
PICOIDES HIRSUTUS. — Gray. 
The Banded Three-toed Woodpecker. 
Picus hirsutus, Vieillot. Ois. Am. Sept., II. (1807) 68. Aud. Orn. Biog., V. 1s, 
39,184. /b., Birds Am., IV. (1842), pl. 269. Nutt. Man., I. (2d ed. 1840) 692. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Black above; the back with transverse bands of white to the rump; a white line 
from behind the eye, widening on the nape, and a broader one under the eye from 
the loral region, but not extending on the forehead; occiput and sides of the head 
uniform black; quills spotted on both webs with white; under parts white; the sides 
banded transversely with black; top of the head spotted with white; the crown of 
the male with a yellow patch; bill bluish-black; iris dark-hazel. 
Length, about nine inches; wing, four forty-five one-hundredths; tail, three 
thirty-five one-hundredths. 
This bird is rarely found in New England, except in the 
midst of severe winters, and then it seldom penetrates so 
far south as Massachusetts. I have known of but two or 
three specimens being obtained in this State, and never 
heard of any being shot in the others south of it. Having 
had no opportunities for observing its habits, I can add 
nothing to our knowledge of this species. 
