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.