THE WILLIAMSON SAPSUCKER. 437 
removed. Their surface is highly polished, and their texture varied, giving 
an effect as of water-marked linen paper, in heavy branching lines and coarse 
frost-work patterns. 
No. 174. 
WILLIAMSON’S SAPSUCKER. 
A. O. U. No. 404.° Sphyrapicus thyroideus (Cass. ). 
Synonyms.—\WILLIAMSON’s WoopPECKER. RED-THROATED WOODPECKER 
(male). BRowN-HEADED WoopPECKER (female). BLACK-BREASTED Woop- 
PECKER (female). ; 
Description.—4 dult male: In general glossy black including wings and tail; 
throat, narrowly, scarlet; belly gamboge yellow; sides, flanks, lining of wings and 
under tail-coverts more or less mingled with white,—black-and-white barred, or 
marked with black on white ground; a broad oblique bar on wing-coyerts and 
small more or less paired spots on wing-quills and upper tail-coverts, white; a 
white post-ocular stripe and a transverse stripe from extreme forehead passing 
below eye to side of neck. Bill slaty; feet greenish gray with black nails; iris dark 
brown. Adult female: Very different ; in general, closely barred black- and- white, 
or black-and-brownish; breast only pure “black, in variable extent; whole head 
nearly uniform hair-brown, but showing traces of irrupting black; post-ocular 
stripe of male faintly indicated and occasionally with touch of red on throat; 
some intermediate rectrices black but exposed surfaces of central and outer tail- 
feathers black-and-white barred; white spots of wing-quills larger, paired, and 
changing to bars on inner quills. Young male: Like adult male, but black not 
glossy; belly paler; throat white. Young female: Like adult female but barring 
carried across head, neck, throat, and breast. Length of adult: 9.00-9.75 (228.6- 
247.6) ; wing 5.25 (133.3) ; tail 3.80 (96.5) ; bill .qo-1.15 (22.9-29.2). 
Recognition Marks.—Small Robin size; fine barring of female distinctive; 
extensive black of male with white head-stripes, white rump (upper tail-coverts ) 
and white wing-bar; pattern of underparts (in male) clearly a modification of 
that of S. v. nue but red of throat much reduced, and black much extended. 
Nesting.—Nest: A hole excavated by birds at any height in live deciduous 
tree or dead conifer. Eggs: 3-7, usually 4, white. Av. size, .96 x .67 (24.4 x17). 
Season: May-June; one brood. 
General Range.—\Western United States chiefly in mountains and foothills 
from eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to western slopes of Sierra-Cascades, 
breeding from mountains of Arizona and New Mexico north to British Columbia 
(in the Pyalley of the Okanagan); south in winter to Southwestern States and 
Mexico. 
Range in Washington.—Summer resident chiefly on eastern slopes of the 
Cascades. 
Authorities.—Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II. 1895, p. 97. D?. 
Specimens.—C. 
