142 Field and Forest Rambles. 



held good with many of the mammals of the continent, espe- 

 cially the deer and certain squirrels, which are much larger in 

 the north than the south, and in the mountains than in the 

 lowlands. Then as to colouring: Baird also found that birds 

 living in forest countries and on the coast are darker in 

 colouring than those of the interior, owing perhaps to climate, 

 shade, and protection in the one case, and greater exposure to 

 the elements on the other. As far as my experience extends, 

 I have noted in the three continents of the Old World, and in 

 America, that what we call the prismatic colours are far 

 brighter and clearer in birds constantly shaded by foliage than 

 in species which hunt in the open, and that white and bleached 

 colourings attain their intensities in desert living birds. At 

 all events, nothing can exceed the purity and richness of the 

 plumage of many of the migratory and resident birds of the 

 Canadian forest. 



We have two examples of the three-toed woodpeckers : one 

 is resident, the Black-banded arctic species ; the other, 

 much less common, and apparently migratory, is the BANDED, 

 THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. The first is distinguished from 

 all its other three-toed allies by having the back entirely 

 black, whilst the latter is readily known by having the back 

 banded transversely with white ; both have yellow instead of 

 red patches on the head in the male, but these are wanting in 

 the female. The above are all the resident woodpeckers yet 

 recorded in our forests. Of the migratory species, the well- 

 known "yellow-hammer, or golden wing," (Colaptes) is common; 

 it arrives in June, has its young fledged by the middle of 

 August, and is off south again in October. Perhaps one of the 

 most common of all our summer scansorial birds is the pretty 

 Yellow-bellied Woodpecker . {P. varius, Lin.), readily 

 recognized by its red crown and throat ; the latter is white in 

 the female. The only noticeable difference observed in the 

 specimens I have procured here, as compared with Audubon's 

 descriptions, was in the relative smallness of the scarlet patch 



