THE WOODPECKERS: BIRD FRIENDS OF OUR FORESTS 



691 



two in the matter of size. The male has a fine scarlet 

 stripe over either eye, and this character serves well 

 for identification. Sometimes, in the forests, it is mis- 

 taken for the Downy ; but a good student of birds is not 

 likely to confuse the two. 



T. Gilbert Pearson has given us a most interesting 

 account of this species, and he says among other things : 

 "And now comes the most curious habit of this inter- 

 esting bird. Before a single egg is laid each spring the 

 birds peck 'hundreds <>f small hdles Hhrough the bark 

 about the nest from which the turpentine begins to flow. 

 This soon makes a shiny, 

 sticky surface all around tht 

 tree for two or three feet 

 above the nest and for sev 

 eral feet below it. Why thi> 

 is done we can only con- 

 jecture, although the birds 

 doubtless have a very good 

 reason. It is certainly true 

 that none of the ants that 

 sometimes attack youns^ 

 birds could crawl across this 

 no-man's-land, and it is 

 equally true that the nest 

 will not be troubled by the 

 flying squirrels that are ev- 

 erywhere abundant in the 

 pine forests of the South." 



Equally interesting spe- 

 cies are the Texas Wood- 

 pecker, the San Lucas and 

 Nuttall's, and the Arizona 

 Woodpecker, but space will 

 not admit of my referring 

 to their histories here. Apart 

 from the Ivory-bill, all the 

 species thus far mentioned 

 belong to the genus Dryo- 

 bates a word from the 

 Greek meaning "treaders of 

 oaks," which, to an extent, 

 is true, as all these birds 

 prefer the oaks to the ex- 

 clusion of the pine trees 

 a very interesting fact. No 

 fewer than nineteen 

 dififerent kinds of wood- 

 peckers in our country have 



been referred to the above genus; and between it and 

 Picoides (created to contain the Three^oed wood- 

 peckers) we have a very curious type of this family, 

 namely the White-headed Woodpecker, Xenopicus albo- 

 larvatus, a bird o^f the forests of the Northwest, from 

 southern British Columbia to southern California, east 

 to Idaho and Nevada (Fig. 4). This bird has a most 

 striking plumage, as the head and foreneck are pure 

 white, the miale onily haVing the back of the head and 

 nape a rich red. All the rest of the plumage is of a 



shiny black, the only exception being the large feathers 

 of the wings, which for the most part are white. They 

 live principally upon ants and the seeds of the pines in 

 about equal parts. It is said that the female may lay 

 as many as seven eggs, the hole of the nest rarely being 

 more than fifteen feet above the ground and cut in a pine 

 or fir tree. The late Dr. J. C. Merrill, of the Medical 

 Corps of the United States Army, left us an interesting 

 account of its habits as he observed them at the time 

 he was stationed at Fort Klamath. Among other things 

 he tells us that "on most of the pines in his vicinity 



there are many short stubs 

 of small broken branches, 

 projecting an inch or two 

 from the main trunk. When 

 the sun is shining, these pro- 

 jections are lighted up in 

 such a manner as to appear 

 quite white at a little dis- 

 tance, and they often cast a 

 shadow resembling the black 

 body of the bird. In winter 

 when a little snow is lodged 

 on these stubs, the resem- 

 blance is even greater, and 

 almost daily I was misled 

 by this deceptive appear- 

 ance, either mistaking a 

 stub for a bird or the re- 

 verse." 



For two years I made con- 

 tinuous efforts to obtain a 

 skeleton of the bird just re- 

 ferred to, in that I might de- 

 scribe its osteology; and 

 when one was finally sent 

 me for that purpose, I was 

 enabled to include it in my 

 work upon that subject. 



We have some four spe- 

 cies of Three-toed wood- 

 peckers, and they are chief- 

 ly northern birds with inter- 

 esting habits. Mr. Fuertes 

 has given us a good repre- 

 sentation of the American 

 Three-toed species, and this 

 I have reproduced in Figure 

 5, though not as large as the 

 original. The male is the lower bird, and the top of its 

 head is a rich yellow, while for the rest the plumage 

 is black and white as indicated. To some, these birds 

 are known as "ladder-backs" from the transverse black 

 and white bars of that part of their plumage. As a 

 rule our Three-toed woodpeckers do not migrate, but 

 remain in their IhabJtats throughout the 'bitter northern 

 winters, living upon hibernating insects and grubs be- 

 neath the bark of various trees. They are very silent 

 birds, and the hunter often passes one without noticing it. 



YOUNG FLICKERS 



Fig. 12. We have here a most remarkable photograph made 

 by the author, of a Golden-wing-jd Woodpecker's nest con- 

 taining newly hatched young. A full description of it occurs 

 in the text of the article. 



