Dryobates villosus. 
Descriptions of First Plumage of Cer- 
tftiji North Am, Sbs. UVju. Brewster. 
92. Pious villosus* 
First plumage: male. Forehead spotted thickly with white; crown dull 
scarlet, each feather subterminally spotted with white; nuchal crescent 
entirely wanting. Rest of upper parts dull dead black, marked and 
spotted with white as in the adult. Lores yellowish-white, maxillary line 
very faintly indicated. Beneath soiled yellowish-white. From a speci¬ 
men in my collection shot at Upton, Me., August 1, 1874. The first 
plumage of this species is exceedingly evanescent. The scarlet patch 
upon the crown is soon lost, the feathers dropping out one by one ; a few 
scattered ones, however, usually remain until the feathers of the nuchal 
crescent have begun to appear. 
_ A female in first plumage (Upton, Me., August 20, 1874) differs so 
little from adults as scarcely to require a detailed description. The black 
of the upper parts, as in the male just described, is of a dead or plumbe¬ 
ous cast. The crown is entirely unspotted. I have, however, seen speci¬ 
mens which had the forehead spotted with white. 
* As stated elsewhere, the young of most, if not all of the Woodpeckers, 
regularly moult the wing and tail feathers with the rest of the first plumage. 
No exceptions to this rule occur among large series of the common North 
American species examined, and it may probably be found to hold good among 
all excepting, perhaps, some highly specialized groups. Another peculiar feature 
in the early development of the species most thoroughly investigated, and one 
which is perhaps common to all the members of this family, is the fact that a 
certain proportion of the females in first plumage possess to a greater or less 
degree the adornments which in more advanced stages are peculiar to the 
males alone, and which are lost with the first moult. Marked examples of this 
are afforded by young females of Colaptes auratus, Picus pubescens, and others, of 
which detailed descriptions are given in the text. 
Bull. N, 0.0. 3, Oct., 1878, p, / 7*f 
