536 NOJiTi. AMERICAN UUIUS. 



rouiidod, and with iiuincrinis lonj,' and soft bristly hairs. This is, of course, 

 very ditferent from thu lung, oxtensiU', iiculidy i>uintt'd tunj^uc of otlier 

 WoodiieeUers, with il.s lip iirinud with u few strong, sharp, short, recurved 

 barbs. 



l)r. Hoy and Dr. (.'ones maintain that the food of these ^Voodpecke^s con- 

 sists mainly of tiie camliium or soft inner bark of trees, wiiicli is cut out 

 in patches sometimes of .several inches in e.xtent, and usually ja'oducing 

 S(puire holes in tlie bark, not rounded ones. As may be sujiposed, such pro- 

 ceedings are very injurious to the trees, and ju.stly call down the vengeance 

 of tlieir jn'Oinietors. Tiiis diet is varied with insects and fruits, when they 

 can be had, luit it is l)elieved that cand)iuni is their jirinciiial sustenance. 



Tiiis strongly marked genus appears to l)e com])osed of two sections and 

 three well-defined spucies ; the tir.st being characterized by having the back 

 variegated witii whitish, and the Jugidum with a sharply defined ere.scentio 

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

 whole head and neck are of the latter color, and tlie sharply defined strijjcd 

 jiatterii of the cephalic regions, seen in the normal plumage, obliterated. 

 Comparing the e.Mremc conditions of jdumage to be seen in this ty]ie, as in 

 the females of rnrlns and of rulnr, the differences ajijiear wide indeed, and 

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

 u})on carefully examining a suflii-iently large .series of specimens, we find 

 these extremes to be eimnected liy an unbroken transition, and are thus led 

 to view these ditlerent conditions as manifestations of a iieculiar law jn^inci- 

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

 that the groaj) which at first seemed to comiwwe a section of the genus is in 

 reality only an association of forms of .specific identity, beginning with the 

 birds of the Atlantic, region (<S'. nn-in^), we find in this series the minimum 

 amount of red; indeed, many adult femah's occur winch lack this color en- 

 tirely. Laving not only the whole throat white, liut the entire jiileiun glossy- 

 black ; usually, however, the latter is crimsim. In adult males fnnn this 

 region the front and crown are always crimson, shar])ly defined, and bordered 

 laterally and ]iosteriorly with glossy-black; and lielow the Idack occipital 

 band is another of dirty white; the criuLson of the throat is wholly con- 

 fined between the continuous broad, black malar stripes, and there is no 

 tinge of red on the auriculars ; there is a lu'oad, sharply defined stripe of 

 white liegiiniing with the nasal tufts, ])assing beneath the lilack loral and 

 auricular stri]>e, ami continuing downward into the yellowisli of tlie abdo- 

 men, giving the large, glo.ssy-black ])ectoral area a sharply defined o\itline ; 

 tlie dirty whitish nuchal band is continued forward beneath the black occi))- 

 ital crescent to above the middle of the eye. The pattern just descrilied 

 will lie found in ninety-nine out of a hundred s])ccimens from the Kastern 

 Province of Xorth America (also the West Indies and Avhole of Mexico); 

 but a single adult male from Carlisle, I'enn. (Xo. 12,ti71, W. ;M. liaird), h.as 

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



