508 NOUTll AMEKICAX lURDS. 



close relationsliip to skins iVoin tho Ilio Grancle, and do not approach the 

 Cluateniahm l»iid in the i»eculiar characters just referred to, except in the 

 shortness and curvature of tlie hill. In one sj)ecinien there is an aj^proach 

 to the r>oif()tan in a moderate decree of harrinir on the white inner ed<dn2:s 

 of the tertials ; in the rest, however, they are continuously white. 



ILvniTS. This handsome Woodpecker, distinguished both hy the remark- 

 able beauty of its pluniiiu:!* and tlie i>eculiarity of its provident habits, has a 

 widely extended area of distribution, covering the Pacific Coast, from Oreiron 

 throughout Mexico. In (.'entral America it is reidaced by tlie variety 

 sfri((fipecti(s, and in New (Grenada by the vnv. Jl(fi-i(ji(/((, while at Cape St. 

 Lucas we find iinother local form, J/. <(iif/usfi/nms. So far as we have the 

 means of ascertaining their haltits find no mention of any essential dif- 

 ferences in this respect among the.-., races. 



Suckley and Cooper did not meet with this bird in "Washington Territory, 

 and ^Ir. Lord met with it in abundance on his journev from Yreka to the 

 boundary line of liritish Columbia. ^Ir. Dresser did not observe it at San 

 Antonio. Mr. Clark met with it at t^^e Co})])ermines, in New Mexico, in great 

 numbers, and feeding principally among the oaks. Lieutenant Couch found 

 it in the recesses of the Sierra Madre (piite common and very tame, resort- 

 ing to high trees in search of its food. He did not meet with it east of the 

 Sierra ^hulre. Dr. Kennerly first observed it in the vicinity of Santa Cruz, 

 where it was very frecpient on the mountain-slopes, always preferring the 

 tallest trees, but very shy, and it Mas with ditliculty that a specimen 

 could be procured. ^Ir. Nuttall, who iirst added this bird to our fauna, 

 speaks of it as very jdentiful in the forests around Santa Barbara. Between 

 that region and the Pueblo de los Angeles, Dr. Cambel met with it in great 

 abundance, although neither writer makes mention of any peculiarities of 

 habit. Mr. Emanuel Samuels met with it in and around Petaluma, where 

 he obtained the eg«'s. 



Dr. Newberry, in his IJeport on the zoology of Lieutenant Williamson's 

 route (P. II. II. Beports, VI), states that the range of this species extends to 

 the Columbia, and ])erhaps above, to the westward of the Cascade Bange, 

 though more common in California tlian in Oregon. It was not found in 

 the Des Chutes Basin, nor in the Cascade Mountains. 



In the list of the birds of Guatemala "iven by ^Ir. Salvin in the Ibis, this 

 Woodpecker is mentioned (I, p. B^>7) as being found in the Central Begion, 

 at Calderas, on the Volcan de Fuego, in forests of evergreen oaks, where it 

 feeds on acorns. 



Dr. Heermann describes it as among the noisiest as well as th'^ most abun- 

 dant of the AVoodi)eckers of California. He speaks of it as catching insects 

 on the wing, after the manner of a Flycatcher, and mentions its very ex- 

 traordinary habit of digging small holes in the bark of the pine and the oak, 

 in which it stores acorns for its food in winter. He adds that one of these 

 acorns is placed in each hole, and is so tightly fitted or driven in that it is? 



