52 LIFE HISTOKIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The average measurement of nine specimens from the Ralph collection is 

 23.66 by 17.40 millimetres, or about 0.93 by 0.68 inch. The largest egg 

 measures 24.89 by 17.53 millimetres, or 0.98 by 0.69 inch; the smallest, 22.86 

 by 17.02 millimetres, or 0.90 by 0.67 inch. " , 



The type specimen, No. 24182 (not figured), from a set of three eggs, was 

 taken by Dr. William L. Ralph near San Mateo, Putnam County, Florida, on 

 April 21, 1891. 



ig. Dryobates villosus harrisii (Audubon). 



HARRIS'S WOODPECKER. 



Ficus harrisii Audubon, (Ornithological Biography, V, 1839, 191. 



Dryohates villosus harrisii Ridgway, Proceedings U. S. National Museum, VIII, 1885, 355. 



(B 75, C 298a, R 3606, C 439, IT 393c.) 



Geooraphical ranue: raciflc Coast regions; from northern California (Humboldt 

 Bay) north (near the coast only) through Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia to 

 sinitheru Alaska (Sitka). 



Until within the last few years all the Hairy Woodpeckers from the eastern 

 slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast have been considered as 

 belonging to this subspecies, but recently Mr. William Brewster separated and 

 described a new form in "The Auk" (Vol. V, July, 1888, p. 252), which restricts 

 the range of the present subspecies under consideration very materially. 



The breeding range of this race, as now considered, is a very limited one, 

 and is probably coextensive with its geographical distribution. It is apparently 

 confined to the immediate vicinity of the coast, and is not found at any great 

 distance inland. Among the specimens collected b)^ me at Fort Klamath, 

 Oregon (mostly winter birds), there are two which might be called intermedi- 

 ates between this and the more recently separated Dryobates villosus hyloscopus, 

 but the majority are clearly referable to the latter. In the typical Harris's 

 Woodpecker the under parts are much darker, a smoky brown, in fact; it is also 

 somewhat larger and is very readily distinguishable from the much lighter- 

 colored and somewhat smaller Cabanis's Woodpecker. It has been taken as far 

 nortli as Sitka, Alaska, and seems to be a fairly common resident near Puget 

 Sound, Washington, from which locality I recently received a perfectly typical 

 skin taken by Mr. S. F. Rathbun on February 14, 1892, here it breeds in 

 the pine and fir forests. Its general habits, food, mode of nesting, etc., are 

 similar to those of the preceding subspecies. Its eggs are probably a little 

 larger than those of Cabanis's Woodpecker, but as there are no absolutely 

 identified specimens in the United States National Museum collection as yet, I 

 can not give actual measurements. 



