BIRDS—PICIDAE—FICUS VILLOSUS, 
85 
Variety minor. —Southern States. 
Pious audubonii, Swainson, F. B. A. 1831, 306.— Trudeau, J. A. N. Sc. Ph. VII, 1837, 404, (very young male, 
with crown spotted with yellow.)— Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 194; pi. 417.—In. Birds Arner. IV, 
1842, 259 ; pi. 265.— Nutt. Man. I, 2d ed. 1840, 684. 
Sp.Ch.— Above black, with a white band down the middle of the back. All the larger wing coverts and the quills with 
conspicuous spots of white. Two white stripes on each side of the head ; the upper scarcely confluent behind, the lower not at 
all so ; two black stripes confluent with the black of the nape. Beneath white. Three outer tail feathers with the exposed 
portions white. Length 8 to 11 inches. 
Male, with a nuchal scarlet crest covering the white, and interrupted in the middle. Immature bird with more or less of the 
crown spotted with red or yellow, or both. 
Hab .—North America, to the eastern base of the Rocky mountains. 
In this species the upper parts are of a glossy black ; the feathers on the middle line of the 
hack white, usually with a little black on the outer edge. This white stripe thus produced 
extends from the upper part of the back to the rump ; the upper tail coverts and tail feathers 
black. The under parts are nearly pure white. The scapulars are black; all the exposed 
larger wing coverts, however, have each a rounded spot of white. The outer webs of all the 
quills have numerous spots of white, except the first, which is unspotted, and the second, which 
has only one spot at the base ; the remaining primaries have six each, except the third and the 
three innermost, which have five. The secondaries have four on their exposed portions. The 
inner webs of the quills are similarly spotted. 
In the male there is a rather narrow nuchal band of scarlet interrupted a little in the middle. 
This is about a quarter of an inch long ; all the feathers belonging to it, brown at the base, 
white in the middle, and scarlet at the end. The white is continuous with a broad patch on 
each side the crown, commencing a little above the anterior canthus of the eye, (rarely con¬ 
tinuous with the brownish white bristly feathers at the base of the bill, the shafts of which are 
tipped with black.) This white stripe then curves around the occiput to the nape (the two 
almost meeting behind) and is seen through the red. In the female, where the red is wanting, 
the white is very conspicuous, sometimes appearing almost continuous across the nape. A 
second white stripe begins at the commissure, and passing a short distance below the eye, down 
on the side of the neck, widens in curving round on its back and lower part. The two stripes 
of opposite sides are separated in the lower neck or upper part of the back by a considerable 
interval of black. 
These two white stripes of nearly equal width on the side of the head leave two black ones— 
the upper one rather wider, the lower narrower than the white. The upper passes from the 
forehead through the eye, involving considerably more of the lower eyelid than the upper, and 
widening behind, passes round into the black of the back of the neck. The lower stripe 
proceeds from the commissure downwards along the side of the throat, and widens considerably 
on the sides of the lower neck, sending a short branch on to the side of the hreast. The sides 
of the body under tbe wings are, however, white, as are the under coverts, except a few black 
blotches. 
The three outer tail feathers appear entirely white. There is, however, a very small blotch 
at the extreme base of the inner web of the first, which in the second is perhaps an inch long, 
and on the third leaves only an inch of the end white, with an area extending obliquely from 
this white across the outer web to the base. The other feathers are black. 
As already stated, the female differs in the absence of the red crest. 
