THE BIRD BOOK 
401a. Alaska Three-toed Woodpecker. 
Picoides americanus fasciatus. 
Range. — Alaska, south to British Columbia 
and Washington. 
Like the last, but with more white on the 
back. Eggs like the arcticus. 
401b. Alpine Three-toed Woodpecker. 
Picoides americanus dorsalis. 
Range. — Rocky Mountains from British Co- 
lumbia south to New Mexico. 
Slightly larger than the preceding and with 
more white on the back, almost entirely losing 
the barred effect of the American Three-toed 
variety. They nest chiefly in dead pines, lay- 
ing four or five white eggs that cannot be dis- 
tinguished from those of many other species. 
Size .95 x .70. 
402. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Sphyra 
picus varius varius. 
Range. — North America, east of the Plains; breeding from Massachusetts 
northward, and wintering from the Carolinas and Illinois southward. 
This species is one of the most handsomely marked of the family; they can 
easily be recognized by the red crown and throat (white on the female), each 
bordered by black, and the yellowish underparts. The mem- 
bers of this genus have been found to be the only ones that 
are really injurious, and these only to a slight extent, to cul- 
tivated trees. This species and the two following are the only 
real “sapsuckers,” a crime that is often attributed to the most 
useful of the family. Their nesting season is during May and 
June, they then resorting to the interior of the woods, where 
they deposit their four to seven glossy eggs on the bottom 
of holes in trees, generally at quite an elevation from the 
ground. Size of eggs .85 x .60. 
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 
402a. Red-naped Sapsucker. Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis. 
Range.- — Rocky Mountain region of the United States and southern Canada 
south to Mexico and west to California. 
This variety differs from the last, chiefly in addition of a band of scarlet 
on the nape in place of the white on the Yellow-bellied species. Coming as 
it does, midway between the ranges of the preceding species and the following, 
this variety, with its extension of red on the head and throat, may be regarded 
somewhat as a connecting link between the two species, but it is perfectly dis- 
tinct and does not intergrade with either. There appears to be no difference in 
the nesting habits of the two varieties, except that the present one, according to 
Bendire, shows a preference to nesting in live aspens. The eggs measure 
.90 x .65. 
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