PICIDjE: woodpeckers. 
489 
453. 
154. 
web, on inner web white with black bars and spots ; intermediate tail-feathers black ; outer- 
most regularly barred with black and white ; next to outermost thus barred at end only. Bill 
blackish; feet plumbeous; iris probably red. Size of the others, or rather less. 9 without 
red on head. A peculiar species, abounding in the valley of the Gila and Lower Colorado, and 
southward, where it nests usually in the giant cactuses. 
MELANER'PES. (Gr. fieXas, melas, black; epnrjs, /ier^es, a creeper.) TRICOLOR Wood- 
peckers. Bill about as long as head, depressed at base, compressed beyond, culmen and gonys 
ridged but curved throughout, sides of upper mandible distinctly ridged but a little way, end of 
bill pointed with little bevelling ; nasal tufts snuill, not concealing nostrils. Outer posterior 
and anterior toes of equal lengths. Wings pointed by 3d, 4th, and 5th quills ; 2d shorter than 
6th; 1st spurious. Plumage lustrous and broad" in coloration, with black, white, and red in 
masses, little or not spotty or streaky. Sexes alike and young different, or sexes unlike and 
young similar. The two species are very different, requiring no analysis of their characters. 
M. erythroce'phalus. (Gr. epvOpos, erutliros, red ; Ke(paXT], kephale, head. Fig. 340.) Red- 
headed Woodpecker. Tricolor. $ 9 ? adult : Beautifully tricolor with the red, white, 
and blue." Back, wings and tail glossy blue-black; seconda- 
ries, upper tail-coverts, under wing-coverts, under parts from 
the breast, and ends of some outer tail-feathers, white. Whole 
head, neck and fore breast crimson, usually black-bordered 
Avhere adjoining the white. The white of the wings and rump 
is pure ; that of belly usually tinged with ochraceous or red- 
dish ; the white quills have black shafts. The red feathers 
are stiffish and somewhat bristly in their colored portions. 
The gloss is sometimes green instead of blue. Bill and feet 
dusky horn-color. Iris brown. Length 8.50-9.50 ; extent 
16.00-18.00 ; wing 5.00-5.50 : tail 3.50 ; bill 1.00-1.12 ; whole 
foot 1.67. $9 J young: The red parts of the adult gray, 
streaked with dusky ; the red appears in irregular patches. 
Feathers of. back and wing-coverts skirted with light gray, 
and mixed with concealed whitish, in bars. Primaries and 
tail-feathers tipped and edged with white. White of seconda- 
ries broken Avith black bars or spots. At a very early age, 
whole under parts streaked with dusky much like the head, 
but these parts whiten before the head reddens. Eastern U. S. 
and British Provinces, irregularly rare or common northerly, 
abounding in most U. S. localities ; common N. to 49° along 
Red River of the North ; W. to Rocky Mts., sometimes to 
Utah and California ; migratory in most sections. A very familiar bird, in orchards and gar- 
dens as well as in the Avoods, conspicuous with its gay tricolor plumage, and a great genius, no 
less brilliant and versatile in character than in plumage — very accomplished, of endless re- 
sources, with tricks and manners enough to fill the rest of this volume with good reading 
matter ! Feeds much on acorns, nuts, berries, and various fruits as well as upon insects, 
and sometimes lays up a store, like the Californian Woodpecker. Nest anywhere in M'ood, 
preferably the blasted top of a tree. Eggs 5 or 6, glassy and spheroidal as usual in the family, 
1.10 to 1.15 long, 0.80 to 0.90 broad. Two broods southerly. 
M. formici'vorus bairdi. (Lat. /onmca, an ant ; two, I devour. To S. F. Baird ; our species 
a variety of the Mexican one. Fig 341.) Californian Woodpecker. $9: Glossy blue- 
black ; rump, bases of aU the quills, edge of the wing, and under parts from the breast, white ; 
sides with sparse black streaks; forehead squarely white, continuous with a stripe down in front 
of the eyes and thence broadly encircling the throat, there becoming yellowish; this cuts off the 
Fig. 340. — Red - headed Wood- 
pecker, reduced. (Sheppard del. 
Nichols sc.) 
