Part 45

Once when the bird-man was camping on the Snoqualmie trail, this crimson vision appeared at the edge of a clearing, and proceeded to inspect our plant approvingly; and while the bird-man’s heart was in his mouth, it lit on the tent-post and gave it two or three inquiring raps. What need of details!

No. 173. NORTHWEST SAPSUCKER.

A. O. U. No. 403 a. Sphyrapicus ruber notkensis Suckow.

Synonyms.—Northern Red-breasted Sapsucker. Crimson-headed Woodpecker.

Description.—Like preceding but darker, red a deep crimson or maroon purple. Original markings of _S. varius nuchalis_ still further effaced. Av. measurements of two adults from Glacier: Length, 9.94 (252.5); wing 5.24 (133.1); tail 3.40 (86.4); bill 1.03 (26.2).

Recognition Marks.—Chewink size; dark crimson of head, neck, and breast distinctive.

Nesting.—_Nest_: An unlined cavity excavated in dead fir or living deciduous tree, usually at considerable height. _Eggs_: 5-7, white. Av. size, .92 × .69 (23.4 × 17.5). _Season_: May or June; one brood.

General Range.—Breeding in Northwest coast district of North America from Oregon to Sitka, Alaska; south in winter to southern California.

Range in Washington.—Summer resident west of the Cascades; also partially resident in winter.

Authorities.—_Sphyrapicus ruber_ Baird, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, pp. 104, 105. C&S. Rh. Ra. B. E.

Specimens.—P. Prov. B. E.

Victor Savings, of Blaine, pointed out a hole fifty feet up in a big fir stub as the Sapsucker’s nest. Soon the female flew to the entrance; whereupon the male bird emerged, gorgeous in crimson panoply, and flew away, the female taking his place on the eggs. After a bit Victor pounded on the tree to raise a possible Harris further up, for the tree above is riddled with nesting holes. The female Sapsucker promptly thrust out her head and studied the situation for five minutes or so, after which she dropped back content. The only notable thing about the nest externally was a round smooth patch, the size of a dollar, upon the tree about four inches below the nest, worn and polished by the tail-feathers of the alighting birds. Judged by this mark of identification, only one of the unused holes above belonged to the Sapsucker; the remainder to the Harris Woodpecker.

The stub commands a view of the Savings’s orchard, where, Victor says, the Sapsuckers do immense damage, especially to the pear trees. This nesting tree was sixteen feet around at the base, above the root bulge, and perfectly desolate of limbs. Fortunately, also, it had long since disposed of its shaggy coat of bark,—fortunately, I say, for when a fir stub sheds its fir coat it does so suddenly, and great is the fall thereof.

It was a far cry up that barren shaft with one knew not what possibilities of defeat at the end of it; but, of course, if one wanted eggs, one had to go after them. First, we laid out a liberal supply of stout two-foot fir cleats, and a couple of pounds of small spikes. A ladder gave us a twenty-foot start, after which I nailed up the cleats with the aid of a three-quarter-inch rope passed round the tree and my body. My companion at the bottom of the tree supplied building materials which I hoisted from time to time by means of another rope.

In this laborious fashion the nest was reached. The birds, meanwhile, having become increasingly anxious, made frequent approaches from a neighboring tree, crying, _kee-a, kee-aa_, in helpless bewilderment. Several times they lighted near the scene of operations, but were frightened off by the resounding blows of the hand-axe. When all was over, they raised a high, strong _qué-oo,—qué-oo_, never before heard, and reminding one generically of the Red-headed Woodpecker of boyhood days.

By the time I had a hole large enough to thrust in the hand, the eggs were quite buried in chips and rotten wood. But when they were uncovered, they were seen to lie, seven of them, in two regular lines, four in the front rank with sides touching evenly, and three in the rear with points dove-tailed between. There was, of course, no lining for the nest, save the rotten wood itself. The eggs were perfectly fresh and had a warm pink tint before the contents were removed. Their surface is highly polished, and their texture varied, giving an effect as of water-marked linen paper, in heavy branching lines and coarse frost-work patterns.

No. 174. WILLIAMSON’S SAPSUCKER.

A. O. U. No. 404. Sphyrapicus thyroideus (Cass.).

Synonyms.—Williamson’s Woodpecker. Red-throated Woodpecker (male). Brown-headed Woodpecker (female). Black-breasted Woodpecker (female).

Description.—_Adult male_: In general glossy black including wings and tail; throat, narrowly, scarlet; belly gamboge yellow; sides, flanks, lining of wings and under tail-coverts more or less mingled with white,—black-and-white barred, or marked with black on white ground; a broad oblique bar on wing-coverts and small more or less paired spots on wing-quills and upper tail-coverts, white; a white post-ocular stripe and a transverse stripe from extreme forehead passing below eye to side of neck. Bill slaty; feet greenish gray with black nails; iris dark brown. _Adult female_: Very different; in general, closely barred black-and-white, or black-and-brownish; breast only pure black, in variable extent; whole head nearly uniform hair-brown, but showing traces of irrupting black; post-ocular stripe of male faintly indicated and occasionally with touch of red on throat; some intermediate rectrices black but exposed surfaces of central and outer tail-feathers black-and-white barred; white spots of wing-quills larger, paired, and changing to bars on inner quills. _Young male_: Like adult male, but black not glossy; belly paler; throat white. _Young female_: Like adult female but barring carried across head, neck, throat, and breast. Length of adult: 9.00-9.75 (228.6-247.6); wing 5.25 (133.3); tail 3.80 (96.5); bill .90-1.15 (22.9-29.2).

Recognition Marks.—Small Robin size; fine barring of female distinctive; extensive black of male with white head-stripes, white rump (upper tail-coverts) and white wing-bar; pattern of underparts (in male) clearly a modification of that of _S. v. nuchalis_, but red of throat much reduced, and black much extended.

Nesting.—_Nest_: A hole excavated by birds at any height in live deciduous tree or dead conifer. _Eggs_: 3-7, usually 4, white. Av. size, .96 × .67 (24.4 × 17). _Season_: May-June; one brood.

General Range.—Western United States chiefly in mountains and foothills from eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to western slopes of Sierra-Cascades, breeding from mountains of Arizona and New Mexico north to British Columbia (in the valley of the Okanagan); south in winter to Southwestern States and Mexico.

Range in Washington.—Summer resident chiefly on eastern slopes of the Cascades.

Authorities.—Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II. 1895, p. 97. D².

Specimens.—C.

Over and beyond the interest of _life_, which is always the greatest charm of an animal, be it bird or snail, a curious interest attaches to many creatures thru some accident of discovery, some misapprehension, or neglect, or absurd surprise,—the historical interest, humanly considered. Now the amusing thing about Williamson Sapsuckers, male and female, is that ages after God had joined them together man snatched them rudely asunder, thrusting Mr. Williamson into one pigeon-hole, labeled _williamsonii_, and Mrs. Williamson—under a vernacular alias of Brown-headed Woodpecker—since she was indiscreet enough to flit out alone one day, into another, labeled _Picus thyroideus_. This legal crime, which was committed in the probate court of ornithological inexperience in 1853 and 1857, was not corrected until 1873, when Mr. Henshaw caught a pair of these really very dissimilar birds innocently conspiring to set the decree of a blundering divorce court at naught.

Of the occurrence of this species in Washington, there is little to be said. There is a record for British Columbia, Similikameen, June, 1882, by R. V. Griffin, whence Bendire evidently assumes its presence along the eastern slope of the Cascade Mountains in Washington. I am aware of only one published instance[73], recording a female narrowly observed by myself at the Yakima Soda Springs, on August 9, 1899. Besides that we have obtained momentary glimpses of others in the Stehekin Valley in three successive seasons, 1906-1908.

Bendire notes that these Sapsuckers are like the other species in habit, except that they are not at all confined to deciduous trees, and that they are found (in Oregon, California, and Colorado) at the higher levels, from 5000 feet up. So far, we have found them in Washington only at altitudes of 1000 to 1500 feet.

No. 175. NORTHERN PILEATED WOODPECKER.

A. O. U. No. 405 a. Phlœotomus pileatus abieticola (Bangs).

Synonyms.—Logcock. Cock-of-the-Woods. Black Woodcock.

Description.—_Adult male_: General plumage sooty black, lusterless save on wings and back; whole top of head and lengthened crest bright red; red malar stripes changing to black behind, and separating white spaces; chin and upper throat white; also a white stripe extending from nostrils and below eye to nape, and produced downward and backward to shoulder; narrow white stripe over and behind eye; lining and edge of wing, and a large spot (nearly concealed) at base of primaries, white; black feathers of sides sparingly white-tipped; bill dark plumbeous above, lighter below, save at tip; feet black. In some specimens the whites are everywhere tinged with pale sulphur-yellow, the color being especially noticeable in the axillaries and lining of wings. _Adult female_: Similar, but black on forehead, and black instead of red malar stripes. Length 15.50-19.00 (393.7-482.6); wing 8.50-10.00 (215.9-254); tail 5.85-7.40 (148.6-188); head 4.50-5.50 (114.3-139.7); bill 1.75-2.65 (44.5-67.3).

Recognition Marks.—Largest size; black, white and red on head in stripes; body mainly black.

Nesting.—_Nest_: high in dead trees. _Eggs_: 4-6, white. Av. size, 1.29 × .94 (32.8 × 23.9). _Season_: May; one brood.

General Range.—Formerly the heavily wooded regions of North America south of about latitude 63°, except in the southern Rocky Mountains. Now rare or extirpated in the more settled parts of the Eastern States.

Range in Washington.—Not uncommon resident in larger coniferous forests thruout the State.

Authorities.—[Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814) Ed. Biddle: Coues, Vol. II. p. 185.] _Hylatomus pileatus_ Baird, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, p. 107. T. C&S. L². Rh. D¹. Ra. Kk. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. B. BN.

One’s first acquaintance with this huge black fowl marks a red-letter day in woodcraft, and it is permitted the serious student to examine the bird anatomically just once in a life-time. The scarlet crest attracts first attention, not only because of its brilliancy, but because its presence counterbalances the bill, and imparts to the head its hammer-like aspect. This crest was much sought after by the Indians of our coast, and figured prominently as a personal decoration in their medicine dances, as did the bird itself in their medicine lore. A measurement of twenty-eight inches from wing-tip to wing-tip marks the size of this “Black Woodcock,” while the stiffened tail-feathers with their down-turned vanes show what adequate support is given the clinging claws when the bird delivers one of its powerful strokes. The bill is the marvel. Made apparently of horn, like other birds’ bills, it has some of the attributes of tempered steel. The bird uses it recklessly as both axe and crowbar, for it hews its way thru the bark of our largest dead fir trees, in its efforts to get at the grubs, which have their greatest field of activity between the bark and the wood. It pries off great chips and flakes by a sidewise wrench of its head. A carpenter is known by his chips, but no carpenter would put his chisels to such hard service as the bird does his. As a result there is no mistaking the bark pile which surrounds the base of certain old stubs in the forest for the work of any other agency.

Possibly the most interesting of all is the Log-cock’s tongue, which it is able to protrude suddenly to a distance of four or five inches beyond the tip of its beak. This provision enables the bird to economize labor in the tracking of buried sweets, and the arrangement is made possible by the great development of the hyoid bones with their muscular attachments. These extend backward from the base of the tongue over and around the skull, nearly to the upper base of the bird’s bill again.

The great forest fires which have ravaged our State have proved a god-send to the Woodpeckers, altho they are in no way responsible for them. The Pileated Woodpecker does his share in staying the ravages of the wood-working insects, but he is even more interested in the spoliation of fallen logs and so hastens rather than retards decay. A pair of these Woodpeckers will gradually tear a rotten log to pieces in pursuit of the grubs and wood-boring ants which it harbors. They are shy or confiding just in proportion to the amount of persecution which they have been called upon to endure. I have waited half a day trying to get a specimen, and again I have sat under a shower of chips or ogled a busy pair in the open at forty feet.

The Log-cock has a variety of notes, and one who learns them will find the bird much more common than he may have supposed. The most noteworthy of these is a high-pitched stentorian call, which is not exactly laughter, altho something like it in form, _hü ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hü_. “At a distance this call sounds metallic; but when at close range it is sent echoing thru the forest, it is full and clear, and it is the most untamably wild sound among bird notes.”

In this connection wish to mention a mysterious sound which I have several times heard in the depths of the western forest, but to whose authorship I have no clew unless it proceeds from this bird. The note comes from well up in the trees, and is repeated slowly, after little intervals, and with a sort of funereal solemnity. If I venture to literate it, the letters are to be thought rather than said,—or better still, thought while whistled in a low key _(si) poolk(ng) - - - (si)poolk(ng) - - (si)poolk(ng)_. Who will “riddle me this mystery”?

The Pileated Woodpecker chisels out its nesting hole at any height in dead timber, whether of fir, pine, spruce, or other. It nests regularly in this State, but the taking of its eggs is something of a feat; so, in default of much-coveted “luck,” we fall back on Bendire[74]: “From three to five eggs are usually laid to a set, but I have seen it stated that the Pileated Woodpecker often laid six, and that a nest found near Farmville, Virginia, contained eight. An egg is deposited daily, and incubation begins occasionally before the set is completed, and lasts about eighteen days, both sexes assisting in the duty, as well as in caring for the young. Like all Woodpeckers the Pileated are very devoted parents, and the young follow them for some weeks after leaving the nest, until fully capable of caring for themselves. Only one brood is raised in a season. The eggs of the Pileated Woodpecker are pure china-white in color, mostly ovate in shape; the shell is exceedingly fine-grained and very glossy, as if enameled.”

No. 176. LEWIS’S WOODPECKER.

A. O. U. No. 408. Asyndesmus lewisi Riley.

Synonym.—Black Woodpecker.

Description.—_Adults_: Above shining black with a greenish bronzy luster; “face,” including extreme forehead, space about eye, cheeks, and chin, rich crimson; a collar around neck continuous with breast hoary ash; this ashy mingled intimately with carmine, or carmine-lake, on remaining underparts, save flanks, thighs and crissum, which are black; feathers of nape and underparts black and compact at base but finely dissected on colored portion of tips, each barb lengthened and bristly in character. Bill and feet black; iris brown. _Young birds_ lack the crimson mask and hoary collar; the underparts are gray mingled with dusky below, with skirtings of red in increasing abundance according to age. Length of adult: 10.00-11.00 (254-279.4); wing 6.75 (171.5); tail 4.50 (114.3); bill 1.20 (30.5).

Recognition Marks.—Robin size; shining black above, hoary collar and breast; red mingled with hoary ash on underparts distinctive.

Nesting.—_Nest_: in hole excavated in dead tree, usually at considerable height. _Eggs_: 5-9, white, slightly glossed. Av. size, 1.03 × .80 (26.2 × 20.3). _Season_: third week in May to first week in June; one brood.

General Range.—Western United States from the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and from southern British Columbia to southern Alberta, south to Arizona, and (in winter) western Texas. Casual in Kansas (A. O. U.).

Range in Washington.—Summer resident in timbered sections (Arid Transition and lower Canadian life-zones) east of the Cascades; especially partial to cottonwood timber lining the larger streams; locally distributed or colonizing west of the mountains, chiefly in burns.

Authorities.—[Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814), Ed. Biddle; Coues, Vol. II., p. 187]. _Melanerpes torquatus_, Bonap. Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX., 1858, p. 116. T. C&S. L². D¹. Kb. Ra. D². Ss¹. Ss². Kk. J. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. C. E.

Not the least strange of the many new creatures discovered by a famous expedition of a hundred years ago was this curious black Woodpecker, which Wilson named _torquatus_ (collared), but which soon became known by the name of the intrepid leader, Captain Meriwether Lewis. In habit and appearance the bird combines Crow, Jay, Woodpecker, Flicker, and Flycatcher. It is perhaps as flycatcher that we know him best, as we see him sail out from the summit of a cottonwood or towering pine-tree and make connection with some object to us invisible. If the insects are flying freely, the bird may conclude to remain aloft for a few minutes, fluttering about in great watchful circles, ready for momentary dashes and adroit seizures. A dozen of his fellows may be similarly engaged in the same vicinity, for Lewis is ever a sociable bird, and when he returns to his perch he will raise a curious raucous twitter, a rasping, grating, obstructed sound, which is his best effort at either conversation or song.

In passing from tree to tree the Woodpecker presents a Crow-like appearance, for it moves with a labored, direct flight, which is quite different from the bounding gait so characteristic of many of its real kinfolk. In alighting, also, the bird is as likely to bring up on top of a limb, in respectable bird-fashion, as to try clinging to the tree trunk.

Lewis Woodpeckers are rather wary, and if one starts out to secure a specimen, he is surprised to note how the birds manage to edge off while still out of range, and to fly away across the tree-tops rather than trust themselves to the lower levels. It is well worth one’s while to examine a specimen, because of the exceptional character of the bird’s plumage. The hoary ash of the collar contrasts strikingly with the glossy green of the upperparts, while the rich crimson, mingled with ashy, below, serves to emphasize the extraordinary hair-like character of the feathers themselves. If it had been a Sapsucker, now, or a Harris, we could readily understand how the abdominal plumage might have been teased to rags thru constant friction with rough bark; but this lazy Jack-of-all-trades, who is more flycatcher than true woodpecker, how did he get his under-plumage so fearfully mussed?

For all the Black Woodpecker keeps largely to the tops of trees, it is not averse to ground-meats, and where unmolested, will descend to feed with Cousin Flicker upon crickets, geotic beetles, or fallen acorns. Grasshoppers are a favorite food, and during the season of their greatest abundance the bird requires little else. Service-berries are a staple in season, wild strawberries are not often neglected, and the bird has been known to filch a cherry now and then. Indeed, it is noteworthy that in certain fruit-growing sections, such as the Yakima Valley, Black Woodpeckers have increased in numbers of late. It must not be hastily concluded on this account that the Woodpecker is a menace to the orchard. He earns what he eats. Orchards attract insects, and insects attract birds. Which will you have, no birds, more insects, and so, eventually, no fruit? or more birds, fewer insects, and enough fruit for all?

The occurrence of the Black Woodpecker west of the Cascades is subject to little-understood fluctuations. One year the birds will abound in a certain section, while the year following none are seen. Whether this is because the local food supply has become exhausted with a season’s foraging, or whether the birds are simply whimsical in choice, we do not know. Doubtless, in any event, the rapid opening up of new territory, thru the cutting and partial burning of timber, has provided a field of opportunity too large for the species to fully occupy. With such wealth before them the early colonists may naturally have become a little saucy.

No. 177. YELLOW-SHAFTED FLICKER.

A. O. U. No. 412a. _Colaptes auratus luteus_ Bangs.

Synonyms.—Flicker. Northern Flicker. Golden-winged Woodpecker. Yellow-hammer. High-hole. High-holder. Pigeon Woodpecker. Wake-up.

Description.—_Adult male_: Top of head and cervix ashy gray, with a vinaceous tinge on forehead; a bright scarlet band on the back of the neck; back, scapulars, and wings vinaceous gray with conspicuous black bars, brace-shaped, crescentic or various; primaries plain dusky on exposed webs; lining of the wing and shafts of the wing-quills yellow; rump broadly white; upper tail-coverts white, black-barred in broad, “herring-bone” pattern; tail double-pointed, black, and with black shafts on exposed upper surface; feathers sharply acuminate; tail below, golden-yellow and with yellow shafts, save on black tips; chin, sides of head, and throat vinaceous, enclosing two broad, black, malar stripes, or moustaches; a broad, black, pectoral crescent; remaining underparts white with heavy vinaceous shading on breast and sides, everywhere marked with sharply defined and handsome round, or cordate, spots of black. Bill and feet dark plumbeous. _Adult female_: Similar, but without black moustache. Sexes about equal in size. Length 12.00-12.75 (304.8-323.9); av. of thirteen specimens: wing 6.13 (155.7); tail 4.34 (110.2); bill 1.34 (34).

Recognition Marks.—Size not comparable to that of any better known bird; scarlet nuchal band; _yellow_ “flickerings” in flight; pectoral crescent; white rump; black-spotted breast, etc.

Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. _Nest_: an excavation in a tree or stump, usually made by the bird, at moderate heights; unlined, save by chips. _Eggs_: 4-10, usually 7 or 8, glossy white. Av. size, 1.09 × .85 (27.7 × 21.6).