[386] BIRDS OF OREGON 



available for comparison a series of 96 skins of the small woodpeckers, 

 including 10 from this southern Oregon territory. Most of these birds 

 seem to be intermediate between D. p. gairdneri and D. p. turatii, with 

 summer birds matching well in color of the under parts a good series of 

 comparable birds in California. The bills seem slightly heavier, though 

 the measurable difference is negligible, and the spotting of the tertials is 

 not quite so pronounced, although more so than in summer birds from 

 Portland. We are convinced that the breeding population here is in the 

 aggregate a group of intergrades appearing somewhat closer to turatii, 

 though individuals tending toward either subspecies are available. 



Northern White-headed Woodpecker: 



Dryobates albolarvatus albolarvatus (Cassin) 



DESCRIPTION.- "Outer hind toe longer than outer front toe; bill with nasal groove 

 extending nearly to tip; terminal half of bill not distinctly compressed; tongue very 

 slightly extensile. Adult male: head and neck white, whole body black except for 

 white patch on wings and red patch on back of head. Adult female: similar, but with- 

 out red on head. Young male: similar, but back and red on crown duller. Length: 

 8.90-9.40, wing 5.00-5.10, tail 4.00-4.05." (Bailey) Nest: A hole in a tree, from 

 4 to 15 feet or more from ground. Eggs: 4 to 7, white. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: From Cascades and Sierra Nevadas east to Idaho and Nevada 

 and from Washington to central California. In Oregon: Permanent resident of entire 

 timbered section from summit of Cascades eastward and of western slope in Jackson 

 County and westward along Siskiyous at least to Redwood Highway. 



THE CURIOUSLY colored Northern White-headed Woodpecker, unexpect- 

 edly inconspicuous in its contrasting white and black garb, is a regular 

 permanent Oregon resident wherever the yellow pine is found in good 

 stands. It is one of the more silent woodpeckers that is surprisingly 

 difficult to see so long as it remains motionless against the yellow pine 

 bark. In flight it is exceedingly conspicuous, however, the white wing 

 patches and head showing in startling contrast to the velvety black body 

 plumage. It is a regular inhabitant of the yellow pine area of the Blue 

 Mountains and scattered ranges to the southward and equally common 

 along the eastern slope of the Cascades from the Columbia River south- 

 ward. Somewhere in the vicinity of Crater Lake it crosses the summit 

 and is found somewhat sparingly in the mixed yellow pine and oak 

 forests of Jackson County and across into Josephine County along the 

 timbered flanks of the Siskiyous. There is an area on the head of the 

 Umpqua as yet too little worked by ornithologists where it may occur, 

 although to date we have no definite record of its appearance there. 



Newberry (1857) listed it as not common in the Cascades, and Baird 

 (Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence 1858) recorded it from Oregon, giving the 

 locality as ' 'Cascade Mountains 50 miles south of the Columbia, ' ' referring 

 to specimens collected by Newberry. Cooper (1869) listed it as a breed- 



