Plate CXII. Male and Female.
Bill much shorter than the head, slender; fourth toe considerably
longer than third; fourth quill longest; upper bristles over the
nostrils yellowish, tipped with black; upper part of the head glossy
black; a band of white over the eye ending in a scarlet occipital
band; then a band of black from the eye to the hind neck, succeeded by
one of white from the angle of the mouth, curving so as nearly to meet
its fellow on the hind neck, and a black band from the lower mandible
down the side of the neck. Upper parts black; feathers along the
middle of the back tipped with white; coverts and quills spotted with
white, there being six spots on the outer, and five on the inner webs
of the four longest primaries, the outermost quill with one patch of
white on the inner web, and the next with four spots on each web;
outer small tail-feathers white, with a single black spot, next two
white, with two terminal black bands, the rest variegated, except the
two middle, which are black. Female without red.
_Male_, 6-3/4, 12.
Breeds from Texas to Labrador, and northward to Lat. 58°. Common
throughout the interior to the eastern bases of the Rocky Mountains.
In every district, a constant resident.
Downy Woodpecker, Picus pubescens, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. i. p.
153.
Picus pubescens, Bonap. Syn. p. 46.
Picus (Dendrocopus) pubescens, Downy Woodpecker, Swains. &
Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 307.
Downy Woodpecker, Nutt. Man. v. i. p. 576.
Downy Woodpecker, Picus pubescens, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. ii. p.
81; v. v. p. 539.