134 



WOODPECKERS— FLY-CATCHER— TITMOUSE— SPARROW— WREN— TITS-QUAILS. 



they become more familiar, entering gardens, and making their 

 homes about the house. They have little musical powers, the 

 male merely uttering a feeble, monotonous trill, from the top of 

 some low bush. The nest is made on the ground, under a thicket, 

 constructed of dry leaves, stalks, and grass, mixed with fine roots. 

 The eggs, four or five in number, are greenish-white, minutely 

 speckled with reddish brown. They measure i.oo x 0.70. 



"When alarmed, they have a note something like the ' mew' 

 of a cat, from which they are popularly known by the name of Cat 

 Bird." 



PLATE LXXXIX. 



Brown-headed Woodpecker. (Sphyraficus thyroideus.) 



Fig. 1. 



A beautiful species that is to be met with in the wooded mountain- 

 ous regions on the Pacific slope. It is shy and silent, and usually 

 seen high on the branches of trees. A remarkable feature connected 

 with this bird is the entire absence of the familiar red on the upper 

 part of the head, so common on all other North American Wood- 

 peckers, which is a peculiarity shared only by the Williamson's 

 Woodpecker {Sphyropicus williamsonii). 



Red-breasted Woodpecker. (Sphyropicus ruber.) 



Fig. 2. 



This unusually bright and purely-colored species is a common 

 resident of the Pacific coast. 



A note from Mr. Nuttall to Mr. Audubon, communicating in- 

 formation respecting the habits of this species, says : 



" This species, seen in the forests of the Columbia, and the Blue 

 Mountains of the same country, has most of the habits of the com- 

 mon Red-headed species. It is, however, much less familiar, and 

 keeps generally among the tall fir-trees, in the dead trunks of 

 which it burrows out a hole for a nest, sometimes at a great eleva- 

 tion. On approaching one which was feeding its young, in one 

 of these situations, it uttered a loud, reverberating ' l'r r, 1 'r r,' 

 and seemed angry and solicitous at my approach. The same spe- 

 cies also inhabits Upper California, as well as the northwest coast 

 up to Nootka. It is found eastward as far as the central chain of 

 the Rocky Mountains." 



White-headed Woodpeoker. (Picus albolarvatus.) 



Fig. 3. 



This exceedingly rare and silent Woodpecker is also the most 

 plainly colored of any of our North American species. Its resi- 

 dence : s in the mountains of Oregon, Washington, and southward 

 to California. 



Painted Fly-catoher. (JSetophaga picta.) 

 Fig. 4- 



The figure represents a beautiful Mexican species, occasionally 

 to be met with in Arizona. The head, and around the neck, the 

 breast and the back, is a beautiful lustrous black. The belly, from 

 the middle of the breast, is a dark crimson red. 



Mountain Titmouse. Mountain Chickadee, or White-browed Chickadee. 



(Parus montanus.") 



Fig. 5- 



This species, with the exception that it has a white line over the 

 eyes and across the forehead, is exactly like the common Titmouse, 

 or Black-capped Chickadee. It is a common inhabitant of the 

 Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. Its notes and habits are also 

 like the common Chickadee, represented on plate 32, fig. 4, de- 

 scribed on page 42. 



Spotted Sparrow. Titlark Sparrow. (Passerculus savanna var. anthi- 



nus.) 



Fig. 6. 



This is the California coast variety of our common Savanna 

 Sparrow, represented on plate 49, fig. 1, and described on page 

 69. Cooper, in his Ornithology of California, says : 



" This plain little bird is peculiarly the Marsh Sparrow of this 

 coast, as I have found them rarely out of the salt marshes, 

 where they lie so close, and run so stealthily under the weeds, as 

 to be flushed with some difficulty, rising only to fly a few rods and 

 drop again into the covert. They are not very gregarious except 

 when migrating, and fly up singly." Its song consists of short 

 and pleasant notes. 



Ground Wren. Ground Tit. Fasciated Tit. (Ckam&a fasciata.) 



Fig. 7- 



This little Quaker-like colored Wren, so unlike any other North 

 American species, is a resident on the coast of California, and 

 foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada. The female differs from the male 

 in being a little smaller. 



1 ' This interesting link between the Wrens and Titmice," says 

 Cooper, " is common everywhere west of the Sierra Nevada, on 

 dry plains and hillsides covered with chapparal and other shrubby 

 undergrowth, but it is not found in the forests. It is one of those 

 birds that can live where there is no water, except occasional fogs, 

 for six or eight months together. In these dreary ' barrens,' its 

 loud trill is heard more or less throughout the year, but especially 

 on spring mornings, when they answer each other from various 

 parts of the thickets. They have a variety of other notes resem- 

 bling those of the wrens, and correspond with them also in most 

 of their habits, hunting their insect prey in the vicinity of the 

 ground or on low trees, often holding their tails erect, and usually 

 so shy that they can only be seen by patient watching, when curi- 

 osity often brings them within a few feet of a person ; and, as long 

 as he sits quiet, they will fearlessly hop around him as if fascinated." 



Plumed Quail. Plumed Partridge. Mountain Quail. (Oreortyx pictus.") 

 Fig. 8, Male. Fig. 9, Female. 



This fine bird is a common resident in the higher mountain 

 ranges of California and Oregon. It is usually met with in coveys 

 of about fifteen. They live on insects, seeds, and berries, and are 

 excellent food for the table. Cooper says : 



" In habits and flight they have considerable resemblance to our 

 other Quails, but their cries are quite different. Their note of 

 alarm is a rather faint chirp, scarcely warning the sportsman of 

 their presence, before they fly. They scatter in all directions when 



