The White-headed Woodpeckers 
Distribution in California. —Resident along both slopes of the Sierra Nevada. 
Also the Warners, the Siskiyous, and south to Snow Mountain, Colusa County (Grin- 
nell), and on Mt. Pinos, west through the San Rafaels. 
Authorities.—Cassin ( Leuconerpes albolarvatus) , Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 
vol. v., 1850, p. 106 (orig. desc.; type locality, Oregon Canyon, Eldorado Co.) \ Brewer, 
Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vol. v., 1880, p. 56 (Placer Co.; desc. nest, eggs); Lucas , U. S. 
Dept. Agric., Div. Orn. and Mamm., Bull. no. 7, 1895, p. 37, pi. ii., fig. 8 (structure of 
tongue); Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, vol. ii., 1895, p. 70, part; Barlow, Condor, 
vol. iii., 1901, p. 162 (Sierra Nevada, nests, habits). 
No. 194a Southern White-headed Woodpecker 
A. O. U. No. 399, part. Xenopicus albolarvatus gravirostris Grinnell. 
Synonym.— Grinnell's Woodpecker. 
Description. —Similar to X. a. albolarvatus, but bill averaging larger. Bill 
(male) length 29.7 (1.17), depth 8.3 (.33); (female) length 27.4 (1.08), depth 7.9 (.31). 
Remarks. —This form is based on a single light character, that of a bill averaging 
5% larger in the male and 6% in the female. Nevertheless, the subspecies as here 
defined enjoys a certain degree of isolation, and the character is interesting as 
marking a reversal of the usual order, which calls for increase of size, especially bill, 
with increase of latitude. 
Range of X. a. gravirostris (Wholly contained within California).—Resident 
in the mountains of southern California, the San Gabriels, the San Bernardinos, the 
San Jacintos, the Santa Rosas, and the Cuyamacas. 
Authorities.—Morcom {Xenopicus albolarvatus), Bull. Ridgway Orn. Club, no. 
2, 1887, p. 41 (Bear Valle}', San Bernardino Mts .); Grinnell, Condor, vol. iv., 1902, p. 
89 (orig. desc.; type locality, Sierra San Gabriel); ibid., Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. 
v., 1908, p. 62 (San Bernardino Mts.; habits, nest, etc.). 
LEFT TO OURSELVES, we should be tempted to declare that this 
bird eschews protective coloration altogether; but Mrs. Bailey argues 
that black and white are not very conspicuous colors under our interior 
sun, and claims that the bird gains inattention by its very unbirdlikeness. 
And Dr. Merrill, who made a most satisfactory study of this species near 
Fort Klamath, in Oregon, regards the bird in winter as the very simula¬ 
crum of a broken branch, strongly shadowed, and crowned with snow. 
This woodpecker is essentially a pine-loving species and is, there¬ 
fore, nearly confined to the slopes of the Sierras and the Transition zones 
of the southern ranges. Only in winter does it appear at lower levels, 
and then rarely beyond the pale of .the yellow pine. So close is this 
devotion of bird to tree that the woodpecker’s feathers are almost 
always smeared with pine pitch; and I have found eggs dotted with pitch 
and soiled to blackness by contact with the sitting bird. 
Pitch, however, is no chosen part of the White-headed Woodpecker’s 
menu. The bird does not eat pine sap, as does Sphyrapicus; nor has it 
been found to depend upon any sort of seed or fruit. Wood-ants are 
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