Part 44

General Range.—Pacific coast district from southern California north to British Columbia; extends somewhat beyond eastern slopes of mountain ranges southerly, shades into _D. p. homorus_ along ridge of Cascades northerly.

Range in Washington.—West-side, common resident, especially in lowland groves and about clearings; occupies eastern slopes of Cascades southerly.

Authorities.—_Picus gairdneri_, Audubon, Orn. Biog. V. 1839, 317. T. C&S. Rh. Kb. Ra. D². Ss². Kk. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. B. E.

The local representative of the widespread Downy type is a perfect miniature of the more abundant Harris Woodpecker, even in flight and voice; and to the same causes must be attributed the soiling of a bosom once immaculate. Unlike his greater double, however, Gairdner’s Woodpecker is for the most part confined to deciduous timber, and shows a great preference for wooded bottoms and the borders of streams. Here his industrious tap, tap and cheery _pink_ notes may be heard not alone from the trunks of trees, but from the smaller branches. These he traces to the very end in a search for lurking grub or nit.

The presence of this bird is a benediction in an orchard, for he inspects every niche and crevice of a fruit tree, and if he finds deep-seated troubles, the holes he drives are as necessary as the physician’s lancet. But folks still call them “sapsuckers,” and shoot their little benefactors. Such people should be fined, for a first offense; and the fine remitted only in case they agree to “read up.” For a second offense—Well, I believe in capital punishment myself.

The little Downies, strictly resident, as they are, wherever found, are not so hardly put to it to subsist in winter here as they are north and east. If grubs are scarce there are always edible berries and seeds to fall back on. Yet Gairdners relish nuts or a bit of suet hung out in winter time; and if the would-be patron be not too eager in first advances a very pretty friendship may be established in the course of a season.

Also, because of the season’s mildness, winter bird troupes are not such an important institution as in the frigid East. But wherever Kinglets, Juncoes, Creepers, Wrens, and Chickadees do associate together for benevolent offense and defense, there is Downy in the midst,—and one can hardly help adding (the Master would be the last to forbid it) “and that to bless.”

It is at times difficult to distinguish, in the case of the _pink_ notes and the longer rattling call, between the voices of this bird and the Harris, but the notes of the smaller bird are usually much less in volume and strength, and have a rather more nasal quality. All Woodpeckers have also a sort of signal system, or Morse code, consisting of sundry tattoos on resonant wood. These calls are used principally, or exclusively, during the mating season, and consist, in the case of the Gairdner, of six or seven taps in regular and moderate succession. The birds have favorite places for the production of these sounds; and it is probable that birds are able to distinguish their calling mates by the timbre of the smitten wood, as well as by some subtle variation of tempo which escapes unfamiliar ears.

Gairdners place their nests at inconsiderable heights in deciduous trees, and those, if possible, among thick growths on moist ground. Both sexes assist in excavation, as in incubation. Partially decayed wood is selected and an opening made about an inch and a quarter in diameter. After driving straight in an inch or two, the passage turns down and widens two or three diameters. At a depth of a foot or so the crystal white eggs are deposited on a neat bed of fine chips. Incubation lasts twelve days and the young are hatched about the 1st of June.

Mr. Bowles asserts that when a tree containing eggs is rapped the sitting bird will try, sometimes successfully, to deceive the inquirer by coming to the entrance and dropping out a mouthful of chippings, thus conveying the impression that she is still building. It’s a shame to give it away.

No. 168. WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER.

A. O. U. No. 399. Xenopicus albolarvatus (Cass.).

Description.—_Adult male_: Body plumage and tail glossy black; wings dull black with large blotch of white on median portion of inner primaries and secondaries, and some disconnected white spotting distally; throat and entire head (not deeply) white; a scarlet patch on nape. Bill and feet slaty black; iris red. _Female_: Exactly as male _without_ scarlet nuchal band. Length: 9.00-9.50 (228.6-241.3); wing 5.15 (130.8); tail 3.50 (88.9).

Recognition Marks.—Chewink to Robin size; white head unique.

Nesting.—_Nest_: A hole in live pine tree at moderate height. _Eggs_: 3-7, usually 4, pure white. Av. size, .95 × .71 (24.1 × 18). _Season_: June-July, according to altitude; one brood.

General Range.—Mountains of the Pacific Coast States north into British Columbia, east to Idaho and Utah.

Range in Washington.—Resident in the mountains, chiefly east of the Cascade summit.

Authorities.—_Picus albolarvatus_, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, p. 97. C&S. D¹. D². J.

Specimens.—Prov. C.

There is a Gray’s Harbor record for this bird, but the occurrence is unique west of the Cascades. So far as our experience goes, the White-head is to be looked for only in the pine timber which clothes the eastern slopes of the Cascades and their outliers. The range of the species extends casually northward into British Columbia, but the southern boundary of Oregon is nearer its center of distribution, and the birds decrease rapidly in numbers north of the Peshastin Range in Washington.

At first glance we would say that this bird eschews protective coloration altogether, but Mrs. Bailey argues that even black and white are not very conspicuous colors under our interior sun, and claims that the bird gains inattention from its very unbirdlikeness. Dr. Merrill, who made a most satisfactory study of this species near Fort Klamath in Oregon, regards the bird in winter as the very simulacrum of a broken branch strongly shadowed, and crowned with snow.

Concerning its food habits, Dr. Merrill says[71]; “I have rarely heard the Woodpecker hammer, and even tapping is rather uncommon. So far as I have observed, and during the winter I watched it carefully, its principal supply of food is obtained in the bark, most of the pines having a very rough bark, scaly and deeply fissured. The bird uses its bill as a crowbar, rather than as a hammer or chisel, prying off the successive scales and layers of bark in a very characteristic way. This explains the fact of its being such a quiet worker, and, as would be expected, it is most often seen near the base of the tree, where the bark is thickest and roughest. It must destroy immense numbers of _Scolytidæ_, whose larvæ tunnel the bark so extensively, and of other insects that crawl beneath the scales of bark for shelter during winter. I have several times imitated the work of this bird by prying off the successive layers of bark, and have been astonished at the great number of insects, and especially of spiders, so exposed. As a result of this, and of its habit of so searching for food, the White-headed Woodpeckers killed here were loaded with fat to a degree I have never seen equalled in any land bird, and scarcely surpassed by some Sandpipers in autumn.”

The White-headed Woodpecker is a quiet bird in manner and voice. I have never heard it utter a sound even in the presence of a nest robber but it is said to have “a sharp, clear ‘_witt-witt’_” which it uses after the fashion of the Harris Woodpecker, when it flies from tree to tree. The bird is quite wary; but when it cherishes suspicions, it flies away composedly, with no such air of ostentatious offense as Harris indulges on occasion.

The first nest reported from this State was found on July 22nd, 1896, in the valley of the Methow, where this Woodpecker is not at all common. The entrance showed like a clean-cut augur hole, one and five-eighths inches in diameter, driven in a live pine; and was reached conveniently from horseback. Four fresh eggs lay on a bed of chips, some eight inches down, and they were remarkable only for a somewhat uniform distribution of sparse, black spots,—probably dots of adherent pitch, derived from the chips, and soiled to blackness by contact with the sitting bird.

No. 169. ARCTIC THREE-TOED WOODPECKER.

A. O. U. No. 400. Picoides arcticus Swains.

Synonym.—Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker.

Description.—_Adult male_: Upperparts glossy blue-black, duller on flight feathers; primaries and outer secondaries with paired spots of white on edges of outer and inner webs; a squarish crown-patch of yellow (cadmium orange); a small post-ocular spot of white, a transverse white cheek-stripe meeting fellow on forehead and cut off by black malar stripe from white of throat and remaining underparts; sides heavily barred or mingled with blue-black. Bill and feet plumbeous black; iris brown. _Adult female_: Like male, without yellow crown-patch. Length 9.00-10.25 (228.6-260.4); wing 5.25 (133.3); tail 3.50-4.00 (88.9-101.6); bill 1.25 (31.7).

Recognition Marks.—Chewink to Robin size; yellow crown-patch of male; back without white as compared with _P. americanus fasciatus_; and black of head continuous with that of back as compared with the _Dryobates villosus_ group.

Nesting.—Not known to breed in Washington, but probably does so. _Nest_: hole in pine or fir stub, 10-18 inches deep. _Eggs_: 4-6, white, moderately glossed. Av. size, .96 × .72 (24.4 × 18.3). _Season_: last week in May, June; one brood.

General Range.—Northern North America from the Arctic regions south to northern tier of states, and in the Sierra Nevada to Lake Tahoe, south in New England and in Alleghany Mountains in winter, but breeding thruout western range.

Range in Washington.—Rare resident in coniferous forests of the central Cascades.

Authorities.—[“Black-backed three-toed woodpecker,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884 (1885), 22.] Bendire. Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II. 1895, p. 74. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. C. E.

The Black-backed Woodpecker should occur in all our mountains, and especially upon the pine-timbered slopes of the eastern Cascades and in the Blue Mountains. It must, however, be considered rather rare, for we have never met with it afield, and have records of only two specimens, one taken at Glacier and the other near Lake Kichelas. The species is practically non-migratory and should breed wherever it occurs. It is ordinarily a very quiet bird, devoting itself assiduously to its search for tree-boring insects and their larvæ, chiefly _Buprestidæ_ and _Cerambycidæ_; and at other than breeding seasons appears stolidly to ignore the presence of strangers. Its note is described as a sharp, shrill “_chirk, chirk_”; and it is besides a most persistent drummer, rattling away at a single station for minutes at a time, so that the ornithologist who is suspicious may follow the lead from a half mile’s distance.

Nesting is chiefly at moderate heights—from two and a half to eight feet from the ground, Bendire says; so that there ought not to be any difficulty in studying this species once it is found.

No. 170. ALASKAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER.

A. O. U. No. 401 a. Picoides americanus fasciatus Baird.

Synonym.—Ladder-backed Three-toed Woodpecker.

Description.—_Adult male_: Upperparts chiefly black, the back strongly barred with white, these bars more or less confluent centrally; flight-feathers marked with paired white spots, and wing-coverts sometimes more or less spotted with white; two central pairs of tail-feathers black, the next succeeding pair black mingled with white, and the remaining pairs pure white; a squarish yellow patch on crown; a distinct white post-ocular stripe extending to nape; a broad white stripe from lore to side of neck; underparts white, the sides and flanks heavily but narrowly barred with black. Bill and feet plumbeous black; iris brown. _Adult female_: Similar but without yellow crown patch; sometimes largely white on crown. Length of adult: 8.00-9.50 (203.2-241.3); wing 4.60 (116.8); tail 3.60 (91.4); bill 1.20 (30.5).

Recognition Marks.—Chewink to Robin size; lustrous black above with central white in broad _bars_; sides black-and-white barred.

Nesting.—_Nest_: In hole at various heights. _Eggs_: usually 4, white. Av. size, .92 × .70 (23.4 × 17.8). _Season_: June; one brood.

General Range.—Timbered mountains of northern Washington, British Columbia and Alaska.

Range in Washington.—Sparingly resident in northern Cascades.

Authorities.—Brewster, Auk, X. July, 1893, pp. 236, 237.

Specimens.—Prov. C.

This is a permanent resident of the Hudsonian zone on the Mt. Baker range both north and south of the international boundary; also at lower elevations on Vancouver Island and on Salt Springs Island, Gulf of Georgia. Further in the interior it is of irregular distribution, being in some districts replaced by _Picoides arcticus_, and in others occupying the same localities as that species. I have no records for _arcticus_ west of the Cascade range. At one time I was convinced that the Alaskan Three-toed Woodpecker occupied a higher breeding zone than the Black-backed species (_arcticus_), but had to modify this opinion on finding a pair of _fasciatus_ breeding in the low hills back of Clinton, where one would hardly expect to find any three-toed woodpecker. Usually the species is found in the gloomy forests of balsam, spruce, and hemlock, and up to timber line. Here it is a silent bird, its tapping being usually the only sign of its presence.

The cry is a sharp cluck without the insistent ring of its allies of the _Dyrobates_ group. In spring the usual chattering cry, common to so many woodpeckers, is heard, but this is more subdued and guttural than that of the Hairy Woodpecker. The males will also hang for hours on some dead spire beating the regular rattling tattoo of all true woodpeckers.

When shot, even if instantly killed, three-toed woodpeckers of both species have a marvelous faculty of remaining clinging to the tree in death. Where the trunks are draped with _Usnea_ moss, it is impossible to bring one down, except when winged—then they attempt to fly, and fall to earth; but when killed outright they remain securely fastened by their strong curved claws. Repeated shots fail to dislodge them, and it is no joke to drop a big tree with a camp axe, as I have done, only to find at the finish that you cannot discover the object of your quest in the tangle of broken branches and dense rhododendron scrub. The only chance is to leave the bird and to visit the foot of the tree when the relaxing muscles have at length permitted the body to drop—usually within two days. Once I was fortunate enough to observe the exact position that enabled the bird to maintain its grip. I had shot and killed an Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker on a low stump. On going up I found the bird’s feet to be three inches apart by measurement; the tail was firmly braced, and the further the body was tilted back the more firmly the claws held in the bark.

Allan Brooks.

No. 171. RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER.

A. O. U. No. 402 a. Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis Baird.

Description.—_Adult male_: Pileum, throat, and nuchal band carmine (or poppy-red to crimson); crown and throat patches defined by black, narrowly on sides, broadly behind, the black border of throat below forming a conspicuous crescentic chest-band; a white streak over and behind eye, more or less continuous with black-and-white mottling of upper-back; a transverse stripe from nostril around throat and chest, and continuous with white of underparts; remaining upperparts black, variously spotted, banded, and blotched with white; middle coverts and upper tail-coverts nearly pure white, the first-named forming with the exposed edges of the greater coverts a broad white wing-band; underparts centrally pure white or flushed with sulphur-yellow; sides, flanks, and under tail-coverts heavily barred, or marked chiefly in hastate pattern, with black. Bill and feet slaty black; iris brown. _Adult female_: Like male but carmine nuchal patch reduced or wanting; throat-patch reduced by white of chin. In _young birds_ the areas of red are much reduced (wanting except on crown?) the throat being clouded with dusky instead. Length about 8.50 (215.9); wing 5.00 (127); tail 3.20 (81.3); bill 1.00 (25.4).

Recognition Marks.—Chewink size; highly variegated black, white, and red (and sometimes tinged with yellow below); red throat-patch defined by black (or white above in female) distinctive.

Nesting.—_Nest_: A gourd-shaped excavation in decaying wood of live aspen tree, 5 to 30 feet up; entrance 1½ inches wide; hole 8-10 inches deep; no lining. _Eggs_: 3-6, white, moderately glossed, ovate to elliptical ovate. Av. size, .90 × .67 (22.9 × 17). _Season_: June 1-15; one brood.

General Range.—Rocky Mountain and adjacent ranges from Arizona and New Mexico north to about Lat. 54° in Alberta and British Columbia; west to eastern slopes of Cascade Mountains in Washington and Oregon and to the Sierra Nevada; in winter south to Lower California and Mexico; casual in Kansas.

Range in Washington.—In general, in the hilly country of the northeastern part of the State and in the Blue Mountains; commonly along river bottoms in Stevens County; rare or casual on eastern slopes of the Cascades.

Authorities.—Bendire, Auk, Vol. V. July, 1888, 226. Sr¹. J.

Specimens.—Prov. C.

The western variety of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker differs only slightly from the eastern bird in appearance, and not at all in disposition. Of _varius_ I have already said[72]:

Before the maple sap has ceased running, our woods are invaded from the south by a small army of hungry Sapsuckers. The birds are rather unsuspicious, quiet, and sluggish in their movements. Their common note is a drawling and petulant _kee-a_, like that of a distant Hawk; but they use it rather to vent their feelings than to call their fellows, for altho there may be twenty in a given grove, they are only chance associates and have no dealings one with another. Starting near the bottom of a tree, one goes hitching his way up the trunk, turns a lazy back-somersault to reinspect some neglected crevice, or leaps out into the air to capture a passing insect. The bulk of this bird’s food, however, at least during the migration, is secured at the expense of the tree itself. The rough exterior bark layer, or cortex of, say, a maple, is stripped off, and then the bird drills a transverse series of oval or roughly rectangular holes through which the sap is soon flowing. The inner bark is eaten as removed and the sap is eagerly drunk. It is said also that in some cases the bird relies upon this sugar-bush to attract insects which it likes, and thus makes its little wells do triple service. According to Professor Butler, an observer in Indiana, Mrs. J. L. Hine, once watched a Sapsucker in early spring for seven hours at a stretch, and during this time the bird did not move above a yard from a certain maple tap from which it drank at intervals.

Orchard trees suffer occasionally from this bird’s depredations, but the sap of pine or fir trees is its favorite diet and available the year around.

In nesting the Red-naped Sapsucker shows a marked preference for aspen trees and its summer range is practically confined to their vicinity. A nest found on the banks of the Pend d’Oreille, opposite Ione, was placed twenty-five feet up in an aspen tree some sixteen inches in diameter. The tree was dead at the heart but there was an outer shell of live wood two inches in thickness. The bird had penetrated this outer shell with a tunnel as round as an augur-hole, and an inch and a half in diameter, and had excavated in the soft heart-wood a chamber ten inches deep vertically, five and a half horizontally, and three from front to back. Here five eggs, “as fresh as paint,” reposed on the rotten chips. Like all, or most, Woodpecker eggs, these were beautifully transparent, with the position of the contained yolk clearly indicated. One egg was broken with a small round hole, as tho a careless claw had been stuck into it.

The parent birds, especially the male, who was caught on the eggs as tho inspecting the latest achievement, were very attentive, flying back and forth in neighboring trees, and giving utterance to the _keé ah_ and other notes. After my descent from the ruined home, the male alighted beside the hole and tapped at the edges, as tho seeking in the sound of the wood explanation of the disaster.

No. 172. RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER.

A. O. U. No. 403. Sphyrapicus ruber (Gmel.).

Synonym.—Red-breasted Woodpecker.

Description.—_Adult male_: Somewhat as in preceding but distinctive markings of head and neck and chest nearly obliterated by all-prevailing carmine which reaches well down on breast; marks alluded to most persistent in anterior portion of transverse (white) cheek-stripe and in black of lores; breast (posterior to carmine) and remaining underparts strongly suffused with yellow; white spotting of upperparts greatly reduced in area and oftenest tinged with yellow; white wing-bar fully persistent but often yellow-tinged—thus an evolved form of _S. v. nuchalis_, with which males are said to exhibit every degree of gradation. _Adult_ _female_: like male but duller. _Young birds_ are said to be “gray with dull reddish suffusion as if the head had been dipped in claret wine.” Length, etc., as in preceding.

Recognition Marks.—Chewink size; bright crimson of head, “shoulders” and fore-breast distinctive; yellow underparts. Brighter than succeeding.

Nesting.—_Nest_ and _Eggs_ as in _S. r. notkensis_.

General Range.—Northern Lower California, the Pacific Coast States and British Columbia, save in northwestern portion where displaced by succeeding form; retires from northern portion of range in winter.

Range in Washington.—Summer resident and migrant chiefly along the eastern slopes of the Cascades, shading into succeeding form west of the divide.

Authorities.—[Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814) Ed. Biddle: Coues, Vol. II. p. 185.] Bendire, Auk, Vol. V. July, 1888, p. 230. T. D¹.

Specimens.—U. of W.

It is all very well for the economic ornithologist to tell us that Sapsuckers are somewhat injurious to orchard trees, but the sight of one of these splendid creatures, dropping with a low cry to the base of a tree and hitching coquettishly up its length, is enough to disarm all resentment. From what spilled chalice of old Burgundy has the bird been sipping? Or from what baptism of blood has he lately escaped that he should be dyed red for half his length? Recrudescent mythology, ill at ease in these commercial times, nevertheless casts furtive glances at him, and longs to account in its inimitable way for the telltale color.

For myself, if young fruit trees will lure such beauty from the woods, I will turn orchardist. Nor will I begrudge the early sap from my choicest pippins. I am fond of cider myself, but there are worthier. Drink, pretty creature, drink!

Well, of course, there are biographical details; but what of it? Have you not yourself been so smitten with beauty that you forgot to inquire pedigree? Tut, now; you do not even remember a single sentence she said that day. But you remember her. Enough!