It was noticed by Mr. Ridgway only on the Sierra Nevada, and he is not certain that he saw it on the eastern slope of that range.
Sphyropicus williamsoni, Baird.
WILLIAMSON’S WOODPECKER.
Picus williamsoni, Newberry, Zoöl. California and Oregon Route, 89, P. R. R. Repts. VI, 1857, pl. xxxiv, fig. 1.—Sundevall, Consp. 32. Melanerpes rubrigularis, Scl. Annals and Mag. N. H. 3d series, I, Feb. 1858, 127.—Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1858, 2, pl. cxxxi. Sphyropicus williamsoni, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 105, pl. xxxiv, f. 1.—Coues, Pr. 1866, 54.—Cass. P. A. N. S. 1863, 204.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 393. Cladoscopus williamsoni, Cab. & Hein. Mus. Hein. IV, 1863, 82. Melanerpes williamsoni, Gray, Catal. Br. Mus. 1868, 116.
Sp. Char. Rich black; middle line of belly yellow; central line of chin and throat above red. A large patch on the wing, rump, and upper tail-coverts, a line from the forehead beneath the eye, and another from its upper border, white. Tail entirely black. Exposed
surface of quills without any white, except on the outer primaries. Female with the chin white instead of red. Length, 9.00; wing, 5.00; tail, 4.70.
Hab. Rocky Mountains to the Cascade Mountains, Sierra Nevada. Localities: West Arizona (Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 54).
Head and neck all round, sides of breast and body, upper parts generally, wings, and tail, glossy greenish-black. A well-defined white stripe from the nostrils (including the bristly nasal feathers) passing backwards under the eye; another, nearly parallel, starting at the upper part of the eye, and nearly meeting its fellow on the occiput. Chin and throat red along their central line. A large patch on the wing, including the exposed portions of the middle and greater coverts, white, although the anterior lesser coverts are black. The inner face of the wings, excepting the smaller coverts, is black, banded transversely on the inner primaries with white; the sides of body behind and under tail-coverts white, with broadly V-shaped bands of black, which color on the latter occupies the whole central portion of the feathers. Rump and upper tail-coverts pure white; back with a few indistinct and concealed spots of the same. Quills black; the margins of exterior primaries spotted with white, the inner margins only of the remaining quills with similar but larger and more transverse blotches. Middle of the body, from the breast to the vent, sulphur-yellow, with the exception of the type which had been preserved in alcohol (which sometimes extracts the red of feathers). We have seen no specimen (except young birds, marked female), in a considerable number, without red on the chin, and are inclined to think that both sexes exhibit this character. Young birds from the Rocky Mountains are very similar to the adult, but have the throat marked white, and the inner web of innermost tail-feather banded with the same color. No. 16,090, ♂ ad. (Fort Crook, California), has a single crimson feather in the middle of the forehead.
Habits. This comparatively new species of Woodpecker was first discovered by Dr. Newberry in the pine forest on the eastern border of the upper Klamath Lake. Its habits appeared to him to be very similar to those of P. harrisi and P. gairdneri, which inhabit the same region. The individual he procured was creeping up the trunk of a large yellow pine (P. brachyptera), searching for insects in the bark. Its cry was very like that of P. harrisi. Although killed by the first fire, a second discharge was required to detach it from the limb to which it clung fast.
According to Dr. Coues, it is resident and not uncommon in the Territory of Arizona, occurring exclusively among the pine-trees. It is said to range from both slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, from as far north at least as Oregon. Fort Whipple is supposed to be about its southern limit. Dr. Coues states that this species possesses the anatomical peculiarities of the S. varius, and that its habits entirely correspond. Mr. Allen found it abundant on the sides of Mount Lincoln, in Colorado Territory.