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.