A First Glance at the Birds, 



wanting in California. With his big, 

 crested head, his strong, sharp, spear 

 beak, his weak little feet, he is a figure 

 never to be forgotten. His dark, glossy, 

 blue back and his white breast, with a 

 ragged, blue vest, make up a char- 

 acteristic figure; and his loud ringing 

 rattle, uttered as he flies, is a fitting 

 accompaniment to the music of a moun- 

 tain stream. 



The woodpeckers are especially well 

 represented throughout California, and 

 are particularly abundant in number and 

 variety in the mountains. There is 

 Harris's woodpecker, a fair-sized bird, 

 with black and white streaks down the 

 back and a dash of scarlet on the head, 

 and Gairdner's woodpecker, which is 

 like a miniature edition of the other. 

 Related to these two is Nuttall's wood- 

 pecker, in which the black and white 

 markings are disposed as bars instead of 

 streaks. The white-headed woodpecker 

 is found only in the Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains and the ranges to the north 

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