536 NOJiTIl AMEKICAN BIliDS. 



rounded, and witli numerous lon«4 and sut't bristlv hairs. Tiiis is, of course, 

 very ditVerent iioni llie Innij;, extensik' aeuulv ixjinted tongue of other 

 Woodpeckers, with its tip armed with a few strong, sharp, short, recurved 

 barbs. 



I)r. Jloy and I)r. Coues maintain tliat tlie food of these WdudiJeekers con- 

 sists mainly of tlie cambium nr soft inner bark of trees, w hich is cut out 

 in i>atches sometimes of several inches in extent, and usually ja'oducinjj 

 sipiare holes in the bark, not rtainded ones. As may be sujtposed, such pro- 

 ceedin.^s are very injuiious to the trees, and justly call down the vengeance 

 of their pro]>rietors. This diet is varied with insects and fruits, when they 

 can be had, itut it is believed that caml»iiim is their ]>rinciiial sustenance. 



This strongly marked genus api)ears to be composed of two sections and 

 three well-delined species ; the first being characterized Ity having the back 

 variegatetl with whitish, and the jugulum with a sharply defined crescentic 

 patch of black, though the latter is sometimes concealed by red, when the 

 whole head and neck are of the hitter color, and the sharply defined striped 

 pattern of the ce})]ialic regions, seen in the normal jdumage, obliterated. 

 Comi>aring the extreme conditions of plumage to be seen in this type, as in 

 the females of nn-itis and y^X rtilnr, the differences ap]iear wide indeed, and 

 few wouhl entertain for a moment a suspicion of their specific identity ; yet 

 ui>on carefully examining a sulliciently large series of specimens, we find 

 these extremes to be connected by an unbroken transition, an<l are thus led 

 to view these different conditions as manifestations of a peculiar law princi- 

 jially affecting a certain color, which leads us irresistibly to the conclusion 

 that the group which at first seemed to compose a section of the genus is in 

 realitv onl\ an association of forms of s]»ecific identity. IJeginninij with the 

 birds of the Atlantic region (X rariua), we find in this series the minimum 

 amount of red ; indeed, many adult females occur which lack this color en- 

 tirely, haviuLj not only the whole throat white, but the entire itileum ulos.sy- 

 black ; usually, however, the latter is crimson. In adult males fr<mi this 

 region the front and crown are always crimson, sharidv defined, and Ijordered 

 laterally and posteriorly with glossy-black: and lielow the black occijtital 

 band is anothfr of dirty white; the crimson of the thro.at is wholly con- 

 fined 1)et\veen the cttntinuous broad, black malar stripes, and there is no 

 tinge of red on the auriculars ; there is a broad, sharply defined stiii)e of 

 white bcLiinning with the nasal tufts, ])assing beneath the black loral and 

 auricular stri])e, and continuing downward into the yellowish of the abdo- 

 men, giving the large, glossy-black ])ectnral area a sharply defined outline ; 

 the dirty whitish nuchal l)and is continued forward beneath the black occii)- 

 ital crescent U) above the middle of the (\ye. The pattern just described 

 will ])e found in ninety-nin^' out of a hundred specimens from the Eastern 

 Province of Xorth America (alsd the West Indies and whole of ^lexico); 

 but a single adult male, from Carlisle, Penn. (Xo. l:i,o7l, W. ^I. I'aird), has 

 the whitish nuchal band distinctly tinged with red, though differing in 



