A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 2

This Woodpecker was met with by Mr. Ridgway in all wooded portions of the Great Basin, but was most abundant among the pines on the mountains. In all respects, it is a perfect counterpart of the P. villosus of the east.

Picus pubescens, LinnDOWNY WOODPECKER; LESSER SAPSUCKER

Picus pubescens, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 15.—Vieillot, Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 65, pl. cxxi.—Wilson, Am. Orn. I, 1808, 153, pl. ix.—Wagler, Syst. Avium, 1827, No. 23.—Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 81; V, 539, pl. cxii.—Ib. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 249, pl. cclxiii.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 89.—Sundevall, Mon. Pic. 17.—Malb. Mon. Pic. I, 119, pl. xxix.—Cassin, Pr. 1863, 20.—Scl. Cat. 1862, 334.—Gray, Cat. 1868, 44.—Dall & Bannister, Tr. Chicago Ac. I, 1869, 274 (Alaska).—Finsch, Abh. Nat. III, 1872, 60 (Alaska).—Samuels, 89.—Allen, B. E. Fla. 304. Picus (Dendrocopus) pubescens, Sw. F. B. A. II, 1831, 307. Picus (Trichopicus) pubescens, Bonap. Consp. Zyg. Ateneo Italiano, 1854, 8. ? Picus medianus, Sw. F. B. A. II, 1831, 308. Picus meridionalis, Sw. F. B. A. II, 1831, 308 (small southern race). Picus leconti, Jones, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. IV, 1848, 489, pl. xviii (Georgia; three-toed specimen, first toe wanting. Type of Tridactylia, Bp.) Dryobates pubescens, Cab. & Hein. Mus. Hein. 1863, 63.

Sp. Char. A miniature of P. villosus. Above black, with a white band down the back. Two white stripes on the side of the head; the lower of opposite sides always separated behind, the upper sometimes confluent on the nape. Two stripes of black on the side of the head, the lower not running into the forehead. Beneath white; all the middle and greater coverts and all the quills with white spots, the larger coverts with two series each; tertiaries or inner secondaries all banded with white. Two outer tail-feathers white, with two bands of black at end; third white at tip and externally, crissum sometimes spotted with black. Length, about 6.25; wing, 3.75. Male with red, terminating the white feathers on the nape. Young with whole top of head red.

Hab. Eastern United States, towards the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, into British Columbia and the Humboldt Mountains, and north to the limits of the woods; along whole Yukon River; perhaps to the Pacific, north of the 49th parallel; Kodiak. Localities: San Antonio, Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 468). Accidental in England.

The remarks already made on the variation of Picus villosus apply equally well here; all the differences in size and markings with locality being almost exactly reproduced. The western variety, P. gairdneri, is equally uncertain in characters as P. harrisi, and as little entitled to specific distinction. As in the previous instance, we shall call typical pubescens those specimens in which all the middle and greater coverts and all the quills including the innermost secondaries are spotted with white, while those in which any of these feathers, whether all the coverts, as in Oregon birds, or only a few of them, are unspotted, may be called var. gairdneri.

Of typical pubescens in the Eastern States there are minor variations, but not of much account. Thus the forehead itself, apart from the white nasal tufts, is sometimes white, connecting with the white superciliary stripe; more frequently, however, the whole forehead is black. Northern specimens are larger and have larger white spots, and not unfrequently the black cheek-stripe is invaded anteriorly by white, which, however, is appreciable at the base of the feathers. The black bars on the tail are much restricted in specimens from the Yukon. Southern specimens are smaller and darker, with smaller spots on the wings.

In all the changes of the two species, there is no difficulty in distinguishing P. pubescens from P. villosus by the black bars on outer tail-feathers of the former, and their absence in the latter. The crissum of pubescens is sometimes somewhat spotted with blackish. The white markings on the coverts are larger in proportion, and there are almost always two series of white spots on the greater coverts, as in northern varieties of villosus, not one, as in most of those from the Middle States.

Habits. This species, like the Hairy Woodpecker, is a resident rather than a migratory species, and breeds wherever it is met with. It also seems to have very nearly the same geographical distribution with that species. Dr. Woodhouse found it common throughout the Indian Territory, Texas, and New Mexico. It does not, however, appear to have been collected by any of the parties engaged in the Pacific Railroad surveys, nor by that upon the survey of the Mexican boundary. Of seventeen specimens given by Professor Baird in 1858 as in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, six are from Pennsylvania, two from Massachusetts, two from Missouri, one from Bonhomme Island in Nebraska, and the rest from Fort Leavenworth, Salt Creek, Fort Riley, and Platte River in Kansas. It is quite common throughout the coast region of Alaska, exclusive of the Aleutians, and throughout the entire valley of the Yukon. Wilson makes no mention of its geographical distribution, probably because he found it everywhere common, to the extent of his own investigations. Audubon speaks of it as very generally distributed from the lower parts of Louisiana to Labrador, and as far westward as he travelled.

Sir John Richardson states that this species is a constant inhabitant of the fur countries up to the 58th parallel. It seeks its food principally on the maple, elm, and ash, and, north of latitude 54°, where these trees are not found, on the aspen and birch.

According to Wilson, these birds select a suitable place for the excavation of their nest, about the middle of May. An apple, pear, or cherry tree, often in the near neighborhood of a farm-house, is generally fixed upon for this purpose. The work of excavation is begun by the male, who cuts a hole in the solid wood as circular as if described with a pair of compasses. He is occasionally relieved by the female, both parties working with the most indefatigable diligence. The direction of the hole, when made in the body of the tree, is downward by an angle of forty degrees for the distance of six or eight inches, and then directly downward for ten or twelve more. Within, the excavation is roomy, capacious, and as smooth as if polished by the hand of the most finished workman. The entrance is, however, left only just large enough to admit the bodies of the birds. During their labor they even take the pains to carry their chips to a distance, to prevent suspicion. This operation sometimes occupies the chief part of a week. The eggs are generally six in number, pure white, and laid on the smooth bottom of the cavity. The male supplies the female with food while she is sitting. The young generally leave the nest about the last of June.

The same writer also gives an interesting account of the impudent coolness of the House Wren, who, coveting the well-built home of this Woodpecker, and unable to excavate such an apartment for itself, waits until the poor Woodpeckers have completed their work, and then attacks them with violence and drives them off from the nest they have been at so much pains to prepare. He states that he saw a striking example of this, where the Woodpeckers, after commencing in a cherry-tree, within a few yards of the house, and having made considerable progress, were turned out by the Wren. They began again on a pear-tree in the garden, a few yards off, when, after digging out a most complete apartment, and laying one egg, they were once more assaulted by the same impertinent intruder, and finally forced to abandon the place.

Mr. Audubon gives substantially the same account of their nesting, only he assigns an earlier period, the middle of April, for its commencement, and describes the entrance to the excavation as often being at right angles to the trunk for a few inches before it descends. He states that in the Southern and Middle States two broods are raised in a season, farther north seldom more than one.

Mr. C. S. Paine, of Randolph, Vt., speaks of this Woodpecker as being one of the most common and familiar, in Vermont, of the family. They are to be met with in his neighborhood at all seasons of the year, though he is of the opinion that many of them go south to spend the winter. They deposit their eggs about the first of June in the very snug little excavations they prepare. The male bird will sometimes prepare a separate apartment for himself, apart from his mate. Mr. Paine has taken the male in such a hole by himself, and without any nest or eggs, evidently only prepared for shelter.

This Woodpecker has a single note or cry, sounding like chink, which it frequently repeats. When it flies, and often when it alights, this cry is more shrill and prolonged. They are very industrious, and are constantly employed in search of insects, chiefly in orchards and the more open groves. The orchard is its favorite resort, and it is particularly fond of boring the bark of apple-trees for insects. This fact, and the erroneous impression that it taps the trees for the sap, has given to these birds the common name of Sapsuckers, and has caused an unjust prejudice against them. So far from doing any injury to the trees, they are of great and unmixed benefit. Wilson, who was at great pains to investigate the matter, declares that he invariably found that those trees that were thus marked by the Woodpecker were uniformly the most thriving and the most productive. “Here, then,” adds Wilson, “is a whole species—I may say genus—of birds, which Providence seems to have formed for the protection of our fruit and forest trees from the ravages of vermin, which every day destroy millions of those noxious insects that would otherwise blast the hopes of the husbandman, and even promote the fertility of the tree, and in return are proscribed by those who ought to have been their protectors.”

The egg of this species is nearly spherical, pure white, and measures .83 by .72 of an inch.

Picus pubescens, var. gairdneri, AudGAIRDNER’S WOODPECKER

Picus gairdneri, Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 317.—Ib. Syn. 1839, 180.—Ib. Birds Amer. IV, 1842, 252 (not figured).—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 91, pl. lxxxv, f. 2, 3.—Sundevall, Consp. 1866, 17.—Gray, Cat. 1868, 44.—Cooper & Suckley, 159.—Sclater, Catal. 1862, 334.—Malh. Monog. Picidæ, I, 123.—Cass. P. A. N. S. 1863, 201.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 377.—Lord, Pr. R. Art. Inst. IV, 1864, 111. Picus meridionalis, Nutt. Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 690 (not of Swainson).—Gambel, J. A. N. Sc. I, 1847, 55, 105. Picus turati, Malherbe, Mon. Pic. I, 125, tab. 29 (small race, 5.50, from Monterey, Cal., nearest pubescens). Dryobates turati, Cab. & Hein. Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 65. Dryobates homorus, Cab. & Hein. Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 65 (larger, more spotted style).

Sp. Char. Similar to pubescens in size and markings, but with less white on the wings. Varies from entire absence of exposed white spots on the middle and greater wing-coverts and innermost secondaries, with small spots on the quills, to spots on most of their feathers, but absent on some, and the spots generally larger.

Hab. Pacific coast of United States to Rocky Mountains. Darkest and with least white in Western Oregon and Washington.

In the preceding article we have given the comparative characters of this form, which we can only consider as a variety, and not very permanent or strongly marked at that.

As in pubescens, this race varies much in the color of the under parts, which are sometimes pure white, sometimes smoky-brown. It is suggested that this is partly due to a soiling derived from inhabiting charred trees. It is, at any rate, of no specific value.

Habits. Gairdner’s Woodpecker is the western representative and counterpart of the Downy Woodpecker of the east, resembling it in size and general habits, and only differing from it in certain exceptional characteristics already mentioned. It is found throughout western North America, probably from Mexico to the British Possessions, and from the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific.

Dr. Cooper met with it in California, chiefly in the northern parts of the State, but did not observe any south of the Santa Clara Valley. Dr. Coues saw none in Arizona, or possibly a single specimen not positively ascertained.

Dr. Cooper found one of its nests near Santa Clara, on the 24th of May, containing young. It had been burrowed in a small and partly rotten tree, and was about five feet from the ground. From the fact that they were found breeding so far south he infers that among the mountains they probably occur much farther to the south, as do most other northern birds. He found them frequenting chiefly the smaller trees in the vicinity of the evergreen woods, where they were to be seen at all seasons industriously tapping the bark to obtain insects.

Dr. Newberry mentions finding them very common in Oregon, and also in Northern California. In Washington Territory, Dr. Suckley found them extremely common on the Lower Columbia, especially among the willow-trees lining its banks. They were resident throughout the winter, and in these situations were very abundant. In January, 1856, he found them so abundant among the willows growing on the islands in the delta of the Willamette, that he readily obtained eight specimens in the space of an hour. At that season they were very unwary, giving little heed to the presence of man, not even allowing the near discharge of a gun to interfere with their busy search for food.

Dr. Heermann speaks of it as neither common nor especially rare. He obtained several specimens among the mountains of Northern California.

Mr. Lord met with these Woodpeckers abundantly in the Northwestern Boundary Survey. They differed slightly in their habits from the P. harrisi, generally hunting for insects on the maples, alders, and stunted oaks, rather than on the pine-trees. Specimens were taken on Vancouver Island, Sumass Prairie, Colville, and the west slope of the Rocky Mountains at an altitude of seven thousand feet above the sea-level.

Mr. Ridgway found this Woodpecker to be unaccountably rare in the Sierra Nevada and all portions of the Great Basin, as well as in the Wahsatch and Uintah Mountains, even in places where the P. harrisi was at all times abundant. Indeed, he only met with it on two or three occasions, in the fall: first in the Upper Humboldt Valley, in September, where it was rare in the thickets along the streams; and again in the Wahsatch Mountains, where but a single brood of young was met with in August.

An egg of this species from Oregon, obtained by Mr. Ricksecker, is larger than that of the pubescens, but similar in shape, being very nearly spherical. It measures .96 of an inch in length by .85 in breadth.

Subgenus DYCTIOPICUS, Bonap

Dyctiopicus, Bonap. Ateneo Ital. 1854, 8. (Type, Picus scalaris, Wagler.)

Dyctiopipo, Cabanis & Hein. Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 74. (Same type.)

Char. Small species, banded above transversely with black or brown and white.

Of this group there are two sections,—one with the central tail-feathers entirely black, from Mexico and the United States (three species); the other with their feathers like the lateral black, banded or spotted with white (three species from southern South America). The northern section is characterized as follows:—

Common Characters. All the larger coverts and quills with white spots becoming transverse bands on innermost secondaries. Cheeks black with a supra-orbital and a malar stripe of white. Back banded alternately with black and white, but not on upper tail-coverts, nor four central tail-feathers. Beneath whitish, sides with elongated black spots; flanks and crissum transversely barred. Tail-feathers, except as mentioned, with spots or transverse bars of black. Head of male with red patch above (restricted in nuttalli), each feather with a white spot below the red. Female without red.

The characters of the species scalaris, with its varieties, and nuttalli, will be found under Picus.

Picus scalaris, WaglerLADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER

Picus scalaris, Wagler, Isis, 1829, V, 511 (Mexico).—Bonap. Consp. 1850, 138.—Scl. P. Z. S. 1856, 307.—Sund. Consp. 18.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 94, pl. xli, f. 1.—Ib. Rep. Mex. Bound. II, 4, pl. iii.—Scl. Cat. 1862, 333.—Cass. P. A. N. S. 1863, 195.—Gray, Cat. 1868, 48.—Heerm. X, c, p. 18.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 379. Picus (Dyctiopicus) scalaris, Bon. Consp. Zygod. Aten. Ital. 1854, 8. Dyctiopipo scalaris, Cab. & Hein. Mus. 74. Picus gracilis, Less. Rev. Zoöl. 1839, 90 (Mexico). Picus parvus, Cabot, Boston Jour. N. H. V, 1845, 90 (Sisal, Yucatan). Picus orizabæ, Cassin, Pr. A. N. S. 1863, 196 (Orizaba). Picus bogotus, Cassin, Pr. A. N. S. 1863, 196; Jour. A. N. S. V, 1863, 460, pl. lii, f. 1 (Mex.). Picus bairdi (Scl. MSS.), Malherbe, Mon. Pic. I, 118, t. xxvii, f. 7, 8.—Scl. Cat. 333, (?) P. Z. S. 64, 177 (city of Mex.).—Cab. & Hein. Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 76.—Cassin, Pr. A. N. S. 1863, 196.—Coues, Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 52 (perhaps var. graysoni).—Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 468. Hab. Texas and New Mexico, to Arizona; south through Eastern Mexico to Yucatan. Picus scalaris, var. graysoni, Baird, MSS. Hab. Western Arizona; Western Mexico and Tres Marias.

Sp. Char. Back banded transversely with black and white from nape to rump (not upper tail-coverts). Quills and coverts with spots of white; forming bands on the secondaries. Two white stripes on sides of head. Top of head red, spotted with white. Nasal tufts brown. Beneath brownish-white, with black spots on sides, becoming bands behind. Outer tail-feathers more or less banded. Length, about 6.50; wing, 3.50 to 4.50; tail, about 2.50.

Hab. Guatemala, Mexico, and adjacent southern parts of United States. Localities: Xalapa (Scl. P. Z. S. 1859, 367); Cordova (Scl. 1856, 357); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 136); Orizaba (Scl. Cat. 333); S. E. Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 468, breeds); W. Arizona (Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 52); Yucatan (Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. IX, 205).

In the above diagnosis we have endeavored to express the average of characters belonging to a Woodpecker to which many names, based on trifling geographical variations, have been assigned, but which legitimately can be only considered as one species. This is among the smallest of the North American Woodpeckers, and in all its variations the wings are long, reaching as far as the short feathers of the tail. The upper parts generally are black, on the back, rump, and exposed feathers of the wings banded transversely with white, the black bands rather the narrower; the quills and larger coverts spotted with the same on both webs, becoming bands on the innermost secondaries. The upper tail-coverts and two inner tail-feathers on either side are black. The white bands of the back extend all the way up to the neck, without any interscapular interruption. The under parts are of a pale smoky brownish-white, almost with a lilac tinge; on the sides of the breast and belly are a few scattered small but elongated spots. The posterior parts of the sides under the wing and the under tail-coverts are obscurely banded transversely with black. The top of the head, extending from a narrow sooty frontlet at the base of the bill to a short, broad nuchal crest, is crimson in the male, each feather with a white spot between the crimson and the dark brown base of the feathers. The brown nasal tuft is scarcely different from the feathers of the forehead.

In a large series of specimens of this species, from a wide area of distribution, considerable differences are appreciable in size, but fewer in coloration than might be expected. Yucatan birds are the least (Picus parvus, Cabot; vagatus, Cassin), the wing measuring 3.30 inches. Those from Southern Mexico are but little larger (wing, 3.60). In Northern Mexico the wing is nearly 4 inches; in New Mexico it is 4.30. The markings vary but little. The black and white bands on the back are about of equal width, but sometimes one, sometimes the other, appears the larger; the more eastern have, perhaps, the most white. The pattern on the tail is quite constant. Thus, assuming the three outer feathers to be white, banded with black, the outermost may be said to have seven transverse bars of black, of which the terminal four (sometimes five) are distinct and perfect, the basal three (or two) confluent into one on the inner web (the extreme base of the feather white). The next feather has, perhaps, the same number of dark bands, but here only two (sometimes three) are continuous and complete; the innermost united together, the outer showing as scallops. The third feather has no continuous bands (or only one), all the inner portions being fused; the outer mere scallops, sometimes an oblique edging; generally, however, the interspaces of the dark bands are more or less distinctly traceable through their dusky suffusion, especially on the inner web of the outer feather. The number of free bands thus varies slightly, but the general pattern is the same. This condition prevails in nearly all the specimens before us from Yucatan and Mexico (in only one specimen from Arizona, and one or two from Texas), and is probably the typical scalaris of Wagler.

In specimens from the Rio Grande and across to Arizona the seven bands of the outer feather are frequently continuous and complete on both webs to the base, a slight suffusion only indicating the tendency to union in the inner web. The other feathers are much as described, except that the white interspaces of the black scallops penetrate deeper towards the shaft. This is perhaps the race to which the name of P. bairdi has been applied. We do not find, however, any decided reduction in the amount of red on the anterior portion of the head, as stated for this species (perhaps it is less continuous towards the front), except in immature birds; young females possibly losing the immature red of the crown, as with typical scalaris.

A third type of tail-marking is seen in specimens from the Pacific coast, and from the Tres Marias especially; also in some skins from Southwestern Arizona. Here the extreme forehead is black, with white spots; the red of the crown not so continuous anteriorly even as in the last-mentioned race. The general pattern of tail is as described, and the bars on the inner webs are also confluent towards the base, but we have only two or three transverse bars at the end of the outer feathers; the rest of outer web entirely white, this color also invading the inner. The second feather is similarly marked, sometimes with only one spot on outer web; the third has the black scallops restricted. This may be called var. graysoni, as most specimens in the Smithsonian collection were furnished by Colonel Grayson. The size is equal to the largest typical scalaris.

We next come to the Cape St. Lucas bird, described by Mr. Xantus as P. lucasanus. Here the bill and feet become disproportionally larger and more robust than in any described; the black bands of the back larger than the white, perhaps fewer in number. The continuous red of the head also appears restricted to a stripe above and behind the eye and on the occiput, although there are some scattered feathers as far forward as above the eyes. The specimens are, however, not in very good plumage, and this marking cannot be very well defined; the red may really be as continuous forward as in the last variety. The nasal tufts are brown, as in the typical scalaris. The outer three tail-feathers in most specimens show still more white, with one or two indistinct terminal bands only on the outer two; one or two additional spots, especially on inner web, and the sub-basal patch of inner web greatly reduced. Specimens vary here in this respect, as in other races of scalaris, but the average is as described.

Notwithstanding the decided difference between typical scalaris and lucasanus, the discovery of the variety graysoni makes it possible to consider both as extremes of one species. To nuttalli, however, it is but one step farther; a restriction of the red to the posterior half of the top of head, the white instead of brown nasal feathers, and the whiter under parts being the only positive characters. The markings of the tail are almost identical with those of lucasanus. The anterior portion of the back is, however, not banded, as in the several varieties described. For this reason it may therefore be questioned whether, if lucasanus and scalaris are one, nuttalli should not belong to the same series.