The Downy Woodpeckers 
in particular, becoming almost demented from indignation at the appear¬ 
ance of an enemy near the home nest. 
It is a fair question whether the Harris Woodpecker of the extreme 
Northwest did not get his dingy breast through long association with 
his grimy grub-cupboards. The dead trees which he frequents, where 
not actually blackened by fire, are often stained with decaying fungic 
growths and clinging spores, so that the snowy shirt-front of the eastern 
Hairy Woodpecker would be small satisfaction to him here. Or if this 
grimy condition of tree-trunk be not the terminus a quo the smoky front 
of the Woodpecker started, it is certainly the terminus ad quem its color 
is accurately tending. And, of course, it is easy to see how these con¬ 
ditions are due exactly to the humidity which prevails on the Pacific 
Coast, and to a lesser degree through the Trinity and Siskiyou ranges. 
The dry dirt of the Rocky Mountain pines is by comparison clean dirt, 
and so Dryobates villosus is able to take some decent pride in his linen as 
he proceeds eastward. 
No. 191 
Downy Woodpecker 
No. Ola Rocky Mountain Downy Woodpecker 
A. O. U. No. 394b. Dryobates pubescens leucurus Hartlaub. 
Synonym.— Batchelder’s Woodpecker. 
Description. —Similar to D. villosus orius, of which it is a close miniature. The 
differences are chiefly in the spotting of the wings and the pattern of the lateral tail- 
feathers: to-wit, spotting of coverts more extensive, involving tips of greater as well as 
middle coverts; spotting of quills more extensive, involving all the flight-feathers and 
appearing prominently as paired spots on exposed portions of inner tertials; the two 
outer pairs of rectrices marked with black in two or three broken or entire subterminal 
bars; the black of malar stripe reduced and diffused, especially anteriorly. Sex changes 
as in D. villosus. Length about 165.1 (6.50); wing 100 (3.94); tail 63 (2.48); bill 17 
(.67); tarsus 16.3 (.64). 
Remarks. —The geographical variations of D. pubescens follow roughly the out¬ 
lines of its larger prototype, D. villosus, but the differences are not so far developed, 
insomuch that only seven forms are recognized within the same area. The analogy in 
the variation of the two species is especially close within the limits of California. 
D. p. leucurus, like D. v. orius, is the larger, whiter-bellied form, which establishes con¬ 
nections with the northern Rockies. But because it holds the ground covered by three 
recognizable forms of the villosus group, monticola, leucothorectis, and orius, it comes to 
us with pure white underparts, in stronger contrast to the prevalent form, turali. 
Recognition Marks. —Sparrow size; black and white color-pattern of head; back 
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