Var. villosus.—Middle States.
Picus villosus, Linnæus, Syst. Nat. I, 1758, 175.—Vieillot, Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 64, pl. cxx.—Wilson, Am. Orn. I, 1808, 150, pl. ix.—Wagler, Syst. Av. 1827, No. 22.—Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 164, pl. ccccxvi.—Ib. Birds Amer. IV, 1842, 244, pl. cclxii.—Bonap. Conspectus, 1850, 137.—Sundevall, Mon. Pic. 17.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 84. Picus leucomelanus, Wagler, Syst. Av. 1827, No. 18 (young male in summer). Hairy Woodpecker, Pennant, Latham. Dryobates villosus, Cab. & Hein. Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 66.
Var. auduboni.—Southern States.
Picus auduboni, 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, pl. ccccxvii.—Ib. Birds Amer. IV, 1842, 259, pl. cclxv.—Nutt. Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 684.—Cass. P. A. N. S. 1863, 199. Picus villosus, Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1859 (Bahamas, winter).—Allen, B. E. Fla. 302.
Sp. Char. Above black, with a white band down the middle of the back. All the middle and larger wing-coverts and all 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, 8.00 to 11.00; wing, 4.00 to 5.00; bill, 1.00 to 1.25. Male, with a nuchal scarlet crescent (wanting in the female) covering the white, generally continuous, but often interrupted in the middle.
Immature bird of either sex with more or less of the whole crown spotted with red or yellow, or both, sometimes the red almost continuous.
Hab. North America, to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, and (var. canadensis) along the 49th parallel to British Columbia; Sitka; accidental in England.
In the infinite variation shown by a large number of specimens in the markings of the wings, so relied on by authors to distinguish the species of the black and white spotted North American Woodpeckers having a longitudinal band of white down the back, it will be perhaps our best plan to cut them rigorously down to two, the old-fashioned and time-honored P. villosus and pubescens; since the larger and more perfect the series, the more difficult it is to draw the line between them and their more western representatives. The size varies very greatly, and no two are alike in regard to the extent and number of the white spots. Beginning at one end of the chain, we find the white to predominate in the more eastern specimens. Thus in one (20,601) from Canada, and generally from the north, every wing-covert (except the smallest) and every quill shows externally conspicuous spots or bands of white; the middle coverts a terminal band and central spot; the greater coverts two bands on the outer web, and one more basal on the inner; and every quill is marked with a succession of spots in pairs throughout its length,—the outer web as bands reaching nearly to the shaft; the inner as more circular, larger spots. The alula alone is unspotted. This is the typical marking of the P. leucomelas or canadensis of authors. The white markings are all larger respectively than in other forms.
The next stage is seen in typical or average P. villosus for the Middle States. Here the markings are much the same, but the white is more restricted, and on the outer webs of the feathers forms rounded spots rather than bands. Some Carlisle specimens have two spots on the middle coverts as described, others lack the basal one. Another stage is exhibited by a specimen from Illinois, in which with two spots on the middle coverts there is but one terminal on the outer web of the greater, and a reduction in number of spots on the inner webs of innermost secondaries, terminal outer spots not having the corresponding inner. This form is quite prevalent westward and on the Upper Missouri, but cannot be considered as strictly geographical, since a Massachusetts and a Georgia skin agree in the same characters.
In all this variation there is little diminution in the number of spots visible externally, nor so far have we seen any from the region east of the Missouri plains that lack white spots on every covert (except the smallest ones) and every quill, and with few exceptions on both webs of the latter. It is therefore this style that we propose to consider as pure P. villosus, irrespective of variations in the size or shape of the spots, of the amount of white on tail and back, or of the bird itself. Any deviation from this may be called a variety. It has the distribution already mentioned, and extends along the Upper Missouri to British Columbia and Sitka, straggling into Washington Territory, where, however, it is found with the more typical western form,