90 EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS WEST OF 100TH MERIDIAN. 



79. Sphyrapicus tliryroideus (Cass.) Black-breasted Woodpecker. 



This species was first made known to science through a description 

 by Cassiii, published in December, 1851, in Pr. A. N. Sc. In 1857, Dr. 

 JSfewberry published a description of Williamson's Woodpecker (8. wil- 

 liamsonii) from specimens obtained by Lieutenant Williamson's expedi- 

 tion, since which time the two species have been accepted by orni- 

 thologists as perfectly valid, the true relationship of the two being 

 wholly unsuspected. While near Garland, I obtained abundant proof of 

 the specific identity of the two birds in question, williamsonii being the 

 male of thryroidens. Though led to suspect this, from finding the two 

 birds in suspicious proximity, it was some time before I could procure 

 a pair actually mated. A nest was at length discovered, excavated in 

 the trunk of a live aspen, and both the parent birds were secured as 

 they flew from the hole, having just entered with food for the newly - 

 hatched young. As regards the sexual differences of coloration, the 

 case of thryroidens is wholly unique. In this species, the colors of the 

 female are radically different from those of the male. With this single 

 exception, as far as known, the differences of color between the sexes in 

 the family of woodpeckers are confined mainly to the absence or less 

 amount of the bright crimson or red patches about the head. The 

 species is a resident of the pine-woods, abundant at an altitude of 

 10,000 feet, and doubtless is found at least up to the pine-limit. Except 

 in evincing at all times a marked preference for pine-timber, rarely 

 indeed alighting on any of the deciduous trees, their habits and notes 

 seem to correspond pretty closely with those of Sphyropicus nuchalis. 

 The stomachs of all the specimens examined contained nothing but 

 insects and Iarva3. As, however, the structure of the tongue is identical 

 with varius, the species may possibly, in winter and spring, when other 

 food is scarce, feed upon the inner bark of the deciduous trees, as the 

 common sapsuckers (varius and varieties) are well known to do. I never 

 noticed anything, however, which would lead me to suppose this. The 

 nest mentioned above was dug to the depth of seven inches, and was 

 one and three-fourths inches in diameter. The egg-shells had not been 

 removed ; and one which is tolerably whole shows their similarity with 

 those of varius, but appears a trifle larger. 



80. Melanerpes erythrocephalus (L.) Red-headed Woodpecker. 



Dr. Eothrock saw this species in South Park, in July, at an elevation 

 of nearly 10,000 feet, and obtained a single specimen at the Twin Lakes 

 at about the same height. Not seen near Garland, but noted on the 

 Huerfano River, eighty miles northeast of this post, from which I judge 

 it occurs generally, but sparingly, in Colorado. 



