No. 163.
CABANIS’S WOODPECKER.
A. O. U. No. 393 d. Dryobates villosus hyloscopus (Cab.).
Synonym.—Rocky Mountain Hairy Woodpecker (name now restricted to preceding form).
Description.—Similar to D. v. monticola but averaging smaller; lores chiefly or entirely white; underparts more or less soiled whitish; some few white spots appearing on wing-coverts and upon inner secondaries (thus shading into eastern forms of the D. villosus group).
Recognition Marks.—As in preceding.
Nesting.—As in D. v. monticola.
General Range.—Imperfectly made out as regards that of D. v. monticola—“Western United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, excepting the special range of D. v. harrisii, and southward into Mexico” (Coues).
Range in Washington.—Undetermined; perhaps resident in eastern Washington between ranges of monticola and harrisii, perhaps only casual west of Cascades.
Authorities.—Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II. 1895, p. 53. Puyallup, Wash., Dec. 25, 1895, by Geo. G. Cantwell (Ident. by Biol. Surv. Washington, D. C.).
Specimens.—C.
Woodpeckers of the Dryobates group are not migrants, but they are inclined to experiment, and so not infrequently turn up in their neighbors’ preserves. A specimen taken at Puyallup, December 25, 1895, must be regarded as a wanderer from the North, altho Brooks characterizes this form as regular at Sumas, B. C.
No. 164.
HARRIS’S WOODPECKER.
A. O. U. No. 393c. Dryobates villosus harrisii (Aud.).
Description.—Similar to D. v. hyloscopus, but underparts light smoky brown or smoke-gray; sometimes narrowly streaked with black on sides; spotting on wing-quills still further reduced, that of wing-coverts usually wanting. Length of adult: 9.00-10.50 (228.6-266.7); wing 5.00 (127); tail 3.35 (85.1); bill 1.25 (31.8).
Recognition Marks.—Robin size; black-and-white pattern of head (with touch of scarlet on hind-neck of male); smoky below as compared with D. v. monticola or D. v. hyloscopus.
Nesting.—Nest: a hole about 25 feet up in a dead fir tree, lined with chips. Eggs: usually 4, crystalline white. Av. size, 1.05 × .74 (26.7 × 18.8).
General Range.—Pacific coast district from northern California north to southern Alaska.
Range in Washington.—West-side, resident, chiefly at lower levels; east slopes of Cascades, where intergrading either with D. v. homorus southerly (?) or D. v. monticola northerly.
Authorities.—Picus harrisii, Audubon, Orn. Biog. 1839, 191; pl. 417. Townsend, Narrative, (1839), p. 347. T. C&S. L¹. Rh. D¹. Kb. Ra. Kk. B. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. B. BN.
Dr. Cooper judged the Harris to be the most abundant Woodpecker in Western Washington; and this, with the possible exception of the Flicker (Colaptes cafer saturatior), is still true. The bird ventures well out upon the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, and is found sparingly in the higher mountain valleys; but his favorite resorts are burns and the edges of clearings, rather than the depths of the woods. Altho he is resident the year around we are quite likely to overlook his presence until cold weather appears to quicken his pulses, and to send him careering noisily over the tree-tops. He has spent the night, it may be, in the heart of a fir stub at the end of his winter tunnel, and now he covers a half-wooded pasture with great bounds of flight, shouting, plick, plick, from time to time; and he gives a loud rolling call—a dozen of these notes in swift succession—as he pulls up in the top of a dead tree to begin the day’s work.
Taken in Oregon. Photo by Bohlman and Finley.
HARRIS WOODPECKER.
He is an active fellow, hitching up or dropping down the tree trunk with brusque ease, and publishing his progress now and then in cheerful tones. But he knows how to be patient too. In the search for hidden worms and burrowing larvæ it seems not improbable that the Woodpecker depends largely upon the sense of hearing—that he practices auscultation, in fact. A meditative tap, tap, is followed by a pause, during which the bird apparently marks the effect of his strokes, noting the rustle of apprehension or attempted escape on the part of the hidden morsel. It is not unusual for the bird to spend a half hour tunneling for a single taste, and even then the wary game may withdraw along some tunnel of its own, even beyond the reach of the bird’s extensible tongue. But besides that which must be secured from the bowels of the wood, there is much to be gleaned from the surface and in the crannies of the bark. The winter fare is also supplemented by cornel berries and the fruit of certain hardy shrubs.
It is a fair question whether the Harris Woodpecker did not get his dingy breast thru long association with his grimy grub cupboards. The dead trees which he frequents, where not actually blackened by fire, are often stained by decaying fungic growths and clinging spores, so that the snowy shirt-front of the eastern Hairy Woodpecker would be small satisfaction to him here. Or if this grimy condition of tree-trunk be not the terminus a quo the smoky front of the Woodpecker started, it is certainly the terminus ad quem its color is accurately tending. And, of course, it is easy to see how these conditions are due exactly to the humidity which prevails on the Pacific Coast, and to a lesser degree thruout the Cascades. The dry dirt of the Rocky Mountain pines is by comparison clean dirt, and so Dryobates villosus is able to take some decent pride in his linen as he proceeds eastward.