THE WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER. Dre 
and an opening made about an inch and a quarter in diameter. After 
driving straight in an inch or two, the passage turns down and widens two 
or three diameters. At a depth of a foot or so the crystal white eggs are 
deposited on a neat bed of fine chips. Incubation lasts twelve days and the 
young are hatched about the 1st of June. : 
Mr. Bowles asserts that when a tree containing eggs is rapped the 
sitting bird will try, sometimes successfully, to deceive the inquirer by coming 
to the entrance and dropping out a mouthful of chippings, thus. conveying 
the impression that she is still building. It’s a shame to give it away. 
No. 168. 
WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER. 
A. O. U. No. 399. Xenopicus albolarvatus (Cass. ). 
Description.—Adult male: Body plumage and tail glossy black; wings dull 
black with large blotch of white on median portion of inner primaries and 
secondaries, and some disconnected white spotting distally ; throat and entire head 
(not deeply) white; a scarlet patch on nape. Bill and feet slaty black; iris red. 
Female: Exactly as male without scarlet nuchal band. Length: 9.00-9.50 (228.6- 
241.3) ; wing 5.15 (130.8) ; tail 3.50 (88.9). 
Recognition Marks.—Chewink to Robin size; white head unique. 
Nesting.—Nest: A hole in live pine tree at moderate height. Eggs: 3-7, 
usually 4, pure white. Av. size, .95 x.71 (24.1 x18). Season: June-July, accord- 
ing to altitude; one brood. 
General Range.—Mountains of the Pacific Coast States north into British 
Columbia, east to Idaho and Utah. 
Range in Washington.—Resident in the mountains, chiefly east of the Cas- 
cade summit. 
Authorities—Picus albolarvatus, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Sury. IX. 1858, p. 
os CSAS ID IDA le 
Specimens.—Prov. C. 
THERE is a Gray’s Harbor record for this bird, but the occurrence 
is unique west of the Cascades. So far as our experience goes, the White- 
head is to be looked for only in the pine timber which clothes the eastern 
slopes of the Cascades and their outliers. The range of the species extends 
casually northward into British Columbia, but the southern boundary 
of Oregon is nearer its center of distribution, and the birds decrease rapidly 
in numbers north of the Peshastin Range in Washington. 
At first glance we would say that this bird eschews protective coloration 
altogether, but Mrs. Bailey argues that even black and white are not very 
