548 THE BIRDS OF MANITOBA THOMPSON

after which it

became

tolerably

com

uioii; breeds here5 in fall was last seeu ou

September

24; ^188G, firstseen, oue, ou April 20; bulk arrived

May

15^{; last}seen

May

22; israre here⁽Pkmkett). SpecimeninSmith- sonian Itistitution from between Hudson's

Bay and Lake

Winnipeg, alsofrom

Eed

KiverSettlement, Pembina,

May

1, (Blakiston).

Lake

Winnipeg- (Bell). Shoal Lake,

May

15, 1887 (Christy). Portage la Prairie:

Common summer

resident about the streams

and

lakes; ar- rives early in

May

;

commeuces

nesting about the 15th of the

month

_; departsin October; in 1881=, first seen

May

5 (Nash).

Very abundant

on

Red

Deer,

Swan,

Assiniboiue,

and

all rivers along route of 1881 (Macoun). Carberry:

Summer

resident;

more

seen in springtime (Thompson). Dalton: 1889,firstseen, one,on April29;

moMng

unset- tled_; rare here

and

notbreeding (Youmens). Shell River: 1885, first seen, one,on

May

1^; nextseen, one,on

May

3; atransient visitant; not breeding(Calcutt). Qn'Appelle: Tolerably

common summer

resident

;

breeds; arrives

May

30 (Guernsey).

I havenev^er seeu this species in the vicinity of

any

of thedrainage lakes,although they

abound

with amblystomie, insects, etc.,to theex- clusion, however,offish.

134. Dryobates villosus leucomelas. NortlieraHairyWoodpecker.

Common

residentof thewoodlands. InheavytimberonTurtle

Moun-

tain (Cones).

Wiunepeg:

Rare; breeding (Hine). PortagelaPrairie:

Tolerably

common

resident (Nash).

Touchwood

Hills

and Lake

Mani-

toh<\j

and

northward,1880; inthe

woods

alongthe

Red Deer and Swan

Rivers,1881 (Macoun). Carberry:

Common;

breeding; probably ^resi- dent, but not observed

by me

in the very coldest "weather.

Rat

Port- age: Tolerably

common

(Thompson). Qu'Appelle: Tolerably

common;

permanent

resident (Guernsey).

On June

11, 1883,while in thespruce bush, I heard a curious chirp- ing soundthatscarcelyever

seemed

to cease. I traced it to atall pop- lar tree,in

whose

trunk there was a holeabout 30feetfrom theground.

Having

procured an ax Isoon

had

thetree down,

and

found myself in possession of a nest of

young

Hairy Woodpeckers,

They

were i-u a hole, evidentlythe

work

ofthei^arent birds,about afootdeep, 3 inches wide inside

and

2 at the entrance.

The

four youngsters were nearly

grown and

fledged,

and

consequentlywere

much

crowdedin thisnarrow chamber. Threeof

them

werepreciselylikethemother-birdincolor

and

tliefourthdiffered onlyinhavingovereach ear acockadeof rich yellow.

I took

them home

with

me and

found thatthey

had enormous

appetites, nearlyunlimitedcapacity,

and

tremendous lungpower.

The

wholedly long,

when

not eating, theykept

up

adeafening chirr-chirr-chirr, and

two

of them, including the yellow-topped one, never ceased, except in absolute darkness.

Even

while morsels of food were passing

down

theirgreedy throats they would continue togurgle out a sufficiencyof interruptedchirr-chirrstosavetheprinciple. I found thatatoue meal

^"mi"] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 549

each of these birds could take 2 feetof the eutrails of a duck. 1did not findit couveuieutto feed

them more

frequently thau three tiuies a day,

aod

each meal-time fouud

them

ravenous, so that i)robal)ly the parents provided them with

much more

food in the aggregate than I did,

and

as all they brought

them

would probably bo

maggots and

insects, caught singly,

we may

form

some

idea of the

enonnous

labor entailed

by

the rearing of a

young

brood. These

young

birds haveat each coiner oftheirmouthsthe usual bossorrounded massof yellowish white tissue. Ihave never been able to decideon theuse of this. I

had

suxjposed that itis intended to widen the gape, as itis largestin the newly-hatched bird, butis gradually absorbed as they grow. Ex- periments, however, with these

young

woodpeckers led

me

to believe that the nerves oftaste,or at least oftouch,arelocatedthere, forthese birds neverwould 0])en theirbeaks to receive the food they were clam- oring forat first

when

I touched

them

on the beak or breast, but the

moment

this soft

lump was

touched they were wide agape.

The

usual note of this rather noisy bird is a loud chiicJi, butit has also a harsh, prolonged, rattling cry,

somewhat

of the nature of the kingfisher's rattle, but varied and lengthened with a combiuatiou of stridulous screams.

135. Dryobates pubescens.

Downy

Woodpecker.

Tolerably

common

in

wooded

sections; saidto be resident. Winni- peg: Resident; abuiul.uit; breeding(Hiue). Shoal Lake,

May

15,1887 (Christy).

Ossowa

(Wagner). Portagela Prair'e: Tolerably

common

resident (Nash).

Lake

Manitoba and westward; specimen shot at Manitoba House,

June

1(!,1881 (Macoun). Carberry:

Uncommon

; prob- ably resident (Thompson).

136. Picoides arcticus. ArcticTliree-toedWoodpecker.

Common

residentin thewoods,especially

among

spruce. Specimens procured near lied Eiver Settlement

by

D.

Gunn

ⁱⁿ Smithsonian In- stitution collection (Blakiston).

Very

abundant about Rat Portage

in October, 1886; also inallthe spruce

woods

nearCarberry;it isthere

more numerous

in winter thanin summer, therefore it

may

be partly migratory (Thompson). Specimens shot at the confluence of

Red Deer

iiiver

and

the Etimoines River (Macoun).

On November

4,1884, while out deer-hunting, I

was

guided

by

the tapping

and

^" churking" of a Threetoed

Woodpecker

to the place where he

was

busj^ foraging on the trunk of a spruce tree,

and

although I scored a clean miss the bird felldead at

my

feetwithout a sign of violence aboutit. It

was

a female

and

thestomachcontents,as identified by Dr. Brodie, area:? follows: Eight larv.'eof a Buprefitis (a spruce borer); five larvue of another species ofBiq^resfis,five larvseof a Saperda (apineborer); one larva ofaLcpidopfer, ])robably a

moth

_; one larva notdistinguishable,

and

a smallquantity of wood.

550 THE BIRDS

or'

MANITOBA THOMPSON.

137. Picoides ameiicaiius. AmericanTbreo-toed Woodjjecker.

Very

rare, but probably generalin the uorth

and

east.

Winnipeg

^: veryrare(Hine), I have taken this bird on the

Brokenhead

River, alsoon the

Winnipeg

(K,. H. Hunter).

Rat

Portage, October21, 1S80,

saw what

^I took forPicoides americamis (Thompson). This bird exists in all the forestsof spruce-fir lying between

Lake

Sa|)erior

and

the Arctic Sea,and it is the most

common

woodpecker north of Great Slave

Lake

(Richardson). Severn

House

(one specimen), the

common

Three-toed

Woodpecker

(Murray). Hudson's

Bay

(Hutchins).

138. Sphyrapicus varius. Yellow-belliedSapsncker.

Common summer

resulent of

wooded

^section; plentiful at

Pembina,

whereit was breeding in June; again seen on the

Mouse

River; not observed further north (Cones). Winnipeg:

Summer

resident; abun- dant (Hine). Shoal Lake:

May

20, 1887 (Christy):

Abundant

around

Lake Manitoba

and westward^; specimen shot atManitoba House,

and Swan Lake

House,

Juno and

July, 1881 (Macoun). Carberry:

Com- mon summer

resident; breeduig (Thompson). Shell River: 1885, first

seenai^airon

May

3; a transient visitor; not breeding (Calcutt).

On Juue

20, 1883, at the spruce bush, I found the nest of a

Sap

-

sucker. It

was

iu a

new

hole in a green poplar tree, about30 feet from the ground. Itcontained five newly hatched young,

and

in the

chamber

with

them

were

some

of the shells, out of which I recon- structed twoeggs.

The

male, length 8^, stomach full ofants, the fe-

male, length _8|, stomach full of ants, herbill also,

was

full of black ants, intended probably as foodfor the

young

ones, excessively fat,

no redfeathers at all except three or four scattered on the front of the crown, which

was

black. Tlie eggs were each _|f by _f

and

pure white.

On

^{July 3, in} spruce bush, with M. C. found the nest ofa Sap- sucker. It

was

about 20feet from the grouiuliua i)oplar, and facing the southeast. Just over the hole was a large limb, which

would

doubtless beof

some

service as a shelter from the rain. I shot the female; hercrown was black, with but a very few red feathersin the front,and

some

oftheseweretipped withyellow.

The

gizzard

was

^full of

wood

anis {Fornicarufa).

139. Ceophloeus^{pileatus. Piloated} Woodpecker. Cockofthewoods.

Rare^; residentiuheavytimber.

Winnipeg

^:

Summer

resident; toler- ably

common

at

Lake Winnipeg and Lake

ofthe

Woods

(Hine). Sel- kirk (Gunn).

Swampy

Islands: Tolerably

common

resident; breeds here(Plunkett). ISTelsouRiver(Brewer).

Very

rare

summer

resident;

saw

one that

had

been shot in the

woods

near the

White Mudd

River at

Westbourne

in 1887 (Nash).

The

species

was

seenon

Swan

River, September2, 1881 (Macoun).

Common

in the

woods

between Wioni-

^^'o!"']

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 551

peg

aud Eat

Portage, alsoabout

Lake Winnipeg

in tbe spruce

woods

(Dr.

Arthur

S. Thompson). Mr.

Hine showed

uie a i-pecimeu taken at Prince Albert; two seen at Rat Portage (Tbompsou).

On

October 10,at

Eat

Portage, a Pileated

Woodpecker was

shot

by W.

S. Thoini)Son; male; length 18i, extent 29; stomach full of ants.

In the afternoon

saw

another in anelevated ])ieceof burnt woods.

Thereis another speciesofWoodpeckers, tbe sizeof amigratorypigeon, with a bloomingcrimson crown. They iiiliabit the interior part of Hudson's Bay. The skins oftlieir bead are used by tbe trading natives to ornament their calimats.

Also describes a specimen. Itwasshot in JanuaryatGloucesterHouse inlatitude

50"^31'N.,longitude 96^ ^3'W., aud387 milesupAlbanyRiver. Makesanestintbe holesoftrees; lays sixeggs audbringsforth its young inJune. (Hutcbins MSS.

ObservationonHudsonBay, 1782.)

140. Melanerpes erythrocephalus. Red-beaded Woodpecker.

Eare

summer

resident;

common

at

Pembina

(Cones).

Winnipeg:

Summer

resident; tolerably

common

; one ortwo i)airseeneachseason (Hine).

Very

rare

summer

visitor;

May

31, 1885,

saw

one bird near the

town

(Portage la Prairie) aiid a

day

or two afterwards

saw

the

same

bird or another near the

same

spot (Nash). Oarberrj': Eare;

summer

resident (Thompson).

Red-beaded Woodpecker. ^{» » *} This birdisuncommoninthese parts(Albany), asIconcludefrouitheignorance of the nativesingeneral concerning it. Perhaps thisistbefarthestpare of itsmigration. (Hutcbius MSS., Observations on Hudson Bay,178-2.)

141. Colaptes auratus. Flicker. Higbholder. Golden-winged Woodpecker.

Very abundant

;

summer

resident wherever there is timber; com-

mon

along

Eed and Mouse

Eivers; also observed at

Pembina and

Turtle

Mountains

(Cones). Dufl'erin: Arrived betweenApril 15

and

20 (Dawson). In a Selkirk Settlement specimen the belly is tinged with pale sulphur yellow, the back with olivaceous green (Eidgway).

Winnipeg: Summer

resident;

abundant

(Hine). Nelson Eiver: In

immense numbers

at

Eed

Eiver Settlement, April 26, 1859(Blakiston).

Ossowa

: Breeding (Wagner).

Oak

Point: 1885, first seen, one, on April 21^; next seenon 22d; is

common and

breeds here (Small). Por- tage laPrairie:

Abundant; summer

resident; arrives aboutApril 20;

departs early in October (Nash).

Common

throughout the Winne- pegoses region

and

along theAssiniboine wherever there were trees

;

Eed Deer

Lake,

August

20 (Macoun). Carberry:

Abundant;

sum-

mer

resident; breeding;

Eat

Portage (Thompson). Dalton ^: 1889, first seen, one, onApril 12; next seen, April 13;

became common

on April 15; breeds here (Youmans). Sliell Eiver: 1885,first seen,two, on April 27; afterwards seen

everyday;

is

common

^all summer,

and

breeds here (Calcutt). Qu'Appelle:

(Jommon

;

summer

resident; ar- rives April 25 (Guernsey). TroutLake:

One

of thewoodpeckers,but, as itfeeds on ants and therefore does not require so

much

labor toget