THE ARCTIC THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 77 



The type specimen, No. 19411 (not figured), from a set of four eggs, Ben- 

 dire collection, was taken by the writer, about 30 miles south of Fort Klamath, 

 Oregon, on May 25, 1883. 



31. Picoides americanus BrehM. 



AMEKICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 



Picoides americanus Brehm, Handbuch der Vogel Deutschlands, 1831, 195. 



(B 83, 301, R 368, C 444, U 401.) 



Geographical range: Northern North America east of the Rocky Mountains; 

 south (principally in winter) to the northern border of the United States; west, casually, 

 to the western slope of the Bitter Root Mountains, in eastern Idaho. 



The American Three-toed, also known as the "Banded-backed," "White- 

 backed," or simply as "Banded Tlu'ee-toed" Woodpecker, is mostly resident and 

 breeds wherever found. Along our northern border it seems to be much rarer 

 than the preceding species, and only breeds in small numbers in Maine, the 

 White Mountains in New Hampshire, the Adirondacks in New York, possibly in 

 the Green Mountains in Vermont, and probably along the west shore of Lake 

 Superior in Minnesota; but it is evidently still rarer in the western portions 

 of its range, within the limits of the United States. The only western specimens, 

 taken within our borders, in the United States National Museum collection, are 

 a female, collected by Dr. J. Gr. Cooper, on September 9, 1860, on the western 

 slope of the Bitter Root Mountains, Idaho, and a pair sent to me by Mr. R. S. 

 Williams, of Columbia Falls, Montana, taken on October 9 and 11, 1893. He 

 writes me: "It is much rarer here than P. arcticus, and I consider it a much 

 more silent bird, its ordinary call notes differing much from those of the former 

 and resembling more those uttered by the genus Dryobates." 



Mr. L. M. Turner met with this Woodpecker in the vicinity of Fort Chimo, 

 Ungava, and secm-ed several specimens at Whitefish Lake, where the spruce and 

 junipers attain a slightly greater size than nearer the Post. In his manuscript 

 notes he says: "Farther to the southward, where the timber is larger and better 

 suited to their habits, they become correspondingly more numerous, and in 

 southern Labrador, south of the 'Height of Land,' they are reported to be 

 quite plentiful. The manner of flight of this species is less vigorous than 

 that of Picoides arcticus, yet differing in a maimer that is diiEcult to describe. 

 These birds are not easy to detect, as they rarely utter a note, and then only 

 a squealing, prolonged sound, similar to that made by Sphyrapicus raniis. They 

 are oftener found solitary, rarely t^^■o being found in the same patch of wood, 

 excepting in the breeding season, and later when follo"\"\'ed hx their 3'oung. 1 

 observed their habit of decorticating large areas of the trunks of trees, very 

 rarely the larger branches, and in only one instance have I found a funnel-shaped 

 hole in a much-decayed snag." 



Stragglers have been taken in Avinter in j\Iassachusetts and also in Wis- 

 consin, but it does not often find its way so far south. According to Sir John 



