LEWIS'S WOODPECKER. 177 



resemble in colour. Now and then they would alight to feed, but re- 

 mained perfectly silent ; they were very shy, the whole flock starting at 

 any near approach. Whether they have any note or call at other seasons 

 I am unable to say. At this time one would scarcely have suspected them 

 of being Woodpeckers, for they perched in dense flocks almost like 

 Starlings, and did not climb the branches, or tap in the least, but merely 

 watched and darted after insects, or devoured berries like Thrushes. 

 We seldom saw this remarkable species in the dense forests of the 

 Columbia, or in any settled part of California.'" 



Dr TowNSEND says, " We first found them on Bear River, and af- 

 terwards on the Columbia, where they arrive about the first of May. 

 They are at first silent, but after incubation commences, they become 

 very noisy and remarkably pugnacious, beating away all other birds 

 from the vicinity of their nests. They frequently perch crossways 

 upon the smaller branches of trees, as well as against their trunks, climb 

 with the usual ease and activity of other species, and are in the fre- 

 quent habit of darting out from the tree on which they had stationed 

 themselves, and after having performed a circular gyration in the air, 

 returning immediately to the branch from which they had started ; 

 as they near the latter again, they spread their wings horizontally, 

 and sail to their perch like some of the Hawks. Both sexes incubate." 



Lewis's Woodpecker, Picus TORauATUs, TVUs. Amer. Ornith. voL iii. p.31,pl. 20, 



fig. 3. 

 Picus TORacATUS, Ch. Bonapa/rte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 46. 

 Lewis's Woodpecker, Nuttall, Manual, vol. i. p. 577- 



Adult Male. Plate CCCCXVI. Fig. 7. 



Bill about the length of the head, nearly straight, strong, compres- 

 sed, tapering, pointed, very slightly truncate and wedged at the tip. 

 Upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly arched, the ridge convex 

 at the base, very narrow in the rest of its extent, the sides sloping and 

 considerably convex, the lateral angle slight, and near the ridge, the 

 edges sharp, direct, overlapping, the tip almost acuminate. Lower 

 mandible with the angle rather short and wide, the crural outline con- 

 cave, the dorsal ascending, straight, the ridge narrow, the sides convex, 

 the edges sharp and inflected, the base faintly striated Nostrils ob- 

 long, basal, nearer the ridge, concealed by the feathers. 



VOL. V. M 



