240 HAIRY WOODPECKER. 



Young. There is a sulphury tinge to the white markings and the inner white tail feather is tipped with black, in 

 both sexes and, in the male, the scarlet patch on the occiput is more restricted; otherwise similar to the adult. Iris, red- 

 dish-brown, bill, black, bluish at base of lower mandible, and foot, bluish, in all tli3 preceding stages. 



Nettling male. Very much tinged on the white with sulphury, the forehead is spotted with white, and the top of the 

 head is spotted with scarlet; otherwise as in the young fomaie. 



Nestling female. A specimen before me, belonging to the Tangs Brothers, taken from the nest in Lincoln, Mas>aoliu- 

 setts, on the eighteenth of June, 1877, and which was only Imlf^rown, has the forehead spotted with white and is slightly 

 tinged with sulphury on the white; otherwise similar to the young female. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Specimens from the South, although smaller in size, do not differ strickingly in color. They may, however, be a trifle 

 darker as an average but there is considerable variation in this respect in birds from all sections; thus, a skin taken at 

 Smithvillc, North Carolina, shows as much, or more, white as nny from Pennsylvania or from further north. A- tl.cn- is u 

 most perfect gradation in size, from the large northern variety to the small southern one, I do not see the feasibility of ap- 

 plying a name to either extreme as it is not possible to draw a line between them, and the same remarks might be applica- 

 ble to almost any geographical race, unless it be separated from its allies by some natural division which prevents any two 

 forms from intergrading. Distributed, as a constant resident, throughout North America 



DIMENSIONS. 



Average measurements of seven specimens from New England. Length, 9 85; stretch, 14'70; wing, 4'83; tail, 3'55; 

 bill, 1'23; tarsus, '92. Longest specimen, 10'50; greatest extent of wing, 10-50; longest wing, 5'07: tail, 4-00; bill, l'3fl; 

 tarsus, 1-00. Shortest specimen, 9'20; smallest extent of wing, 13'(K); shortest wing, 4'60; tail, 3'10; bill, 1 10: tarsus, -85. 



Average measurements of live specimens from Florida. Length, 8'70; stretch, 14'00, wing, 4'65; tail, 2"J7; bill, 1'OsJ; 

 tarsus, '67. Longest specimen, 8'9i); greatest extent of wing, lj'00; 1. ingest wing,4'75: tail, 3'20; bill, 1'05; tarsus, '75. 

 Shortest specimen, 8'50; smallest extent of wing, IS'OO; shortest wing, 4'50; tail, 2'75; bill, I'OO; tarsus, '60. 



DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 



Nests, placed in cylinder-shaped holes, generally excavated in dead trees. Dimensions, diameter of external orifice, 

 2-00, greatest internal, 2-50. Internal depth, 15-00. 



Eygs, four or five in number, elliptical in foim, ]:uie, pcl'sl cd rearlj-yhitc in cclor. Dimensions from 65x 70- to 

 75 x -80. 



HABITS. 



The Hairy Woodpeckers have, like the Golden-wing, a wide distribution, being found 

 in nearly all localities from Maine to Florida but, in some sections, they are much more 

 common than in others. Thus, I have found them exceedingly abundant in the vast for- 

 ests of Northern Maine in autumn but, in Massachusetts, they are not of very frequent 

 occurrence, even in fall or winter, and are rare in summer. They occur in all the wooded 

 sections of Pennsylvania as a moderately common resident, are not unusual south of this 

 point, especially in the Carolinas, and in Florida, I have taken them quite frequently, al- 

 though, when compared with many other of the smaller Woodpeckers, as regards numbers, 

 in a section where representatives of the families are so abundant, they appear quite un- 

 common, for I did not find one Hairy where I found a hundred of the Cockaded or Red 

 and Yellow-bellied. 



Although these Woodpeckers are found in such a vast extent of country, their habits 

 do not differ noticeably, neither do those which live in the piney woods of Florida, utter 

 any different notes from those which inhabit the forests of Maine. It is observable, how- 

 ever, that in the South, the harsh, abruptly given cry is not repeated as frequently as in 

 the North, neither is the rattling call produced by striking the bill on a dead limb, made 

 as often; in fact, the Woodpeckers of Florida, of all species, appear to \)G affected by the 

 enervating climate and are thus much more indolent than birds of the same species which 



