THE BANDED THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 95 



mark. Its breeding habits are not well known ; but it 

 probably breeds in all the large forests of Northern Maine, 

 New Hampshire, and Vermont. 



I was so fortunate as to find two nests in the month of 

 June, 1864, in the valley of the Magalloway River, about 

 forty miles north of Lake Umbagog, Me. The holes were 

 both excavated in hemlock stumps, about ten feet from the 

 ground ; they were not over an inch and a half in diameter, 

 and were about ten inches in depth: the bottom of the 

 hole formed the nest, which, as with the other species, was 

 nothing but a few chips and bits of wood. The first nest, 

 found on the 15th of June, had three young birds, appar- 

 ently about a week old. The second nest had three eggs : 

 these were of a beautiful clear-white color, and the shells 

 remarkably smooth to the touch. Their dimensions varied 

 only from .83 to .85 inch in length, by .75 to .77 inch in 

 breadth. 



PICOIDES HIRSUTUS. Gray. 

 The Banded Three-toed Woodpecker.' 



Picus hirsutus, Vieillot. Ois. Am. Sept., II. (1807) 68. Aud. Orn. Biog., V. 18, 

 39, 184. /., Birds Am., IV. (1842), pi. 269. Nutt. Man., I. (2d ed. 1840) 692. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Black above ; the back with transverse bands of white to the rump ; a white line 

 from behind the eye, widening on the nape, and a broader one under the eye from 

 the loral region, but not extending on the forehead ; occiput and sides of the head 

 uniform black ; quills spotted on both webs with white ; under parts white ; the sides 

 banded transversely with black ; top of the head spotted with white ; the crown of 

 the male with a yellow patch ; bill bluish-black ; iris dark-hazel. 



Length, about nine inches; wing, four forty-five one-hundredths ; tail, three 

 thirty-five one-hundredths. 



This bird is rarely found in New England, except in the 

 midst of severe winters, and then it seldom penetrates so 

 far south as Massachusetts. I have known of but two or 

 three specimens being obtained in this State, and never 

 heard of any being shot in the others south of it. Having 

 had no opportunities for observing its habits, I can add 

 nothing to our knowledge of this species. 



