QA Brewster o» the Birds of Western North Carolina. [January 



frequently observed a tendency toward albinism among individuals of 

 this species. 



96. *Dryobates pubescens gairdneri. (394^.) Gairdner's Wood- 

 pecker. — A common resident and generally distributed. 



97. *Dryobates nuttalli. (397.) Nuttall's Woodpecker. — Resident, 

 but not so common as the preceding. 



98. *Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi. (407.) California Wood- 

 pecker. — Resident and locally abundant. About ten miles from Santa 

 Paula is the Ojai Valley which, shut off from the coast winds by a spur of 

 the Coast Range, is thickly set with live- and white-oaks. Among these 

 this Woodpecker is very common, and is by far the most conspicuous bird 

 of the valley. Almost all the available space on the dead limbs seems 

 to have been used by these industrious birds, which drill these limbs full 

 of holes, and into these they drive great quantities of acorns. 



99. Melanerpes torquatus. (40S.) Lewis's Woodpecker. — I have 

 taken this handsome Woodpecker at Newhall (40 miles up the Valley 

 from Santa Paula) and at Pacheco Pass, but never saw it but once (Novem- 

 ber 2, 1880) in Ventiu-a County. I think it only a winter visitant here. 



100. *Colaptes cafer. (413.) Red-shafted Flicker. — An abundant 

 resident. Individuals are occasionally seen grading into hybridtis. On 

 January 12, iSSi, I took a most beautiful albino of this species. 



( To be concluded^) 



AN ORNITHOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE IN 

 WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. 



BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 



Qltite unaccountably the mountain region of Western North 

 Carolina, Northwestern South Carolina, and Northern Georgia 

 has remained, up to the present time, a terra incognita to 

 ornithologists. Speculations as to its bird-fauna have been more 

 or less freely indulged in, and a general impression has prevailed 

 that many of our so-called northern birds regularly summer and 

 breed there ; while daring prophets have even hinted that it would 

 prove the home of certain 'lost' or imperfectly known species, 

 such as Cuvier's Kinglet, the Carbonated Warbler, Bachman's 

 Warbler, etc. But despite these interesting probabilities and 

 possibilities, the march of actual investigation has been directed 

 into other channels, leaving the 'Land of the Sky' but little better 

 known than in the davs of Wilson and Audubon. 



