Page 134

134 WOODPECKERS-FLY-CA TCHER-TITMOUSE-SPARROW-WREN-TITS-QUAILS.
they become more familiar, entering gardens, and making their
homes about the house. They have little musical powers, the
male merely uttering a feeble, monotonous trill, from the top of
some low bush. The nest is made on the ground, under a thicket,
constructed of dry leaves, stalks, and grass, mixed with fine roots.
The eggs, four or five in number, are greenish-white, minutely
speckled with reddish brown. They measure I.oo x 0.70.
"When alarmed, they have a note something like the ' mew'
of a cat, from which they are popularly known by the name of Cat
Bird."
PLATE LXXXIX.
Brown-headed Woodpecker. (Sphyrapicus thyroideus.)
Fig. 1.
A beautiful species that is to be met with in the wooded mountain-
ous regions on the Pacific slope. It is shy and silent, and usually
seen high on the branches of trees. A remarkable feature connected
with this bird is the entire absence of the familiar red on the upper
part of the head, so common on all other North American Wood-
peckers, which is a peculiarity shared only by the Williamson's
Woodpecker (Siphyropticus williamsonii).
Red-breasted Woodpecker. (Sfphyropicus ruber.)
Fig. 2.
This unusually bright and purely-colored species is a common
resident of the Pacific coast.
A note from Mr. Nuttall to Mr. Audubon, communicating in-
formation respecting the habits of this species, says:
"1 This species, seen in the forests of the Columbia, and the Blue
Mountains of the same country, has most of the habits of the com-
mon Red-headed species. It is, however, much less familiar, and
keeps generally among the tall fir-trees, in the dead trunks of
which it burrows out a hole for a nest, sometimes at a great eleva-
tion. On approaching one which was feeding its young, in one
of these situations, it uttered a loud, reverberating I 1 'r r, 1 'r r,'
and seemed angry and solicitous at my approach. The same spe-
cies also inhabits Upper California, as well as the northwest coast
up to Nootka. It is found eastward as far as the central chain of
the Rocky Mountains."
White-headed Woodpeoker. (Picus albolarvatis.)
Fig. 3.
This exceedingly rare and silent Woodpecker is also the most
plainly colored of any of our North American species. Its resi-
dence ;s in the mountains of Oregon, Washington, and southward
to California.
Painted Fly-oatoher. (Setofihaga ficda.)
Fig. 4
The figure represents a beautiful Mexican species, occasionally
to be met with in Arizona. The head, and around the neck, the
breast and the back, is a beautiful lustrous black. The belly, from
the middle of the breast, is a dark crimson red.
a
Mountain Titmouse. Mountain Chickadee, or White-browed Chickadee.
(Parus montanus.)
Fig. 5.
This species, with the exception that it has a white line over the
eyes and across the forehead, is exactly like the common Titmouse,
or Black-capped Chickadee. It is a common inhabitant of the
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. Its notes and habits are also
like the common Chickadee, represented on plate 32, fig. 4, de-
scribed on page 42.
Spotted Sparrow. Titlark Sparrow. (Passerculus savanna var. anthi-
nus.)
Fig. 6.
This is the California coast variety of our common Savanna
Sparrow, represented on plate 49, fig. I, and described on page
69. Cooper, in his Ornithology of California, says:
" This plain little bird is peculiarly the Marsh Sparrow of this
coast, as I have found them rarely out of the salt marshes,
where they lie so close, and run so stealthily under the weeds, as
to be flushed with some difficulty, rising only to fly a few rods and
drop again into the covert. They are not very gregarious except
when migrating, and fly up singly." Its song consists of short
and pleasant notes.
Ground Wren. Ground Tit. Fasciated Tit. (Chamaa fasciata.)
Fig. 7.
This little QCuaker-like colored Wren, so unlike any other North
American species, is a resident on the coast of California, and
foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada. The female differs from the male
in being a little smaller.
"1 This interesting link between the Wrens and Titmice," says
Cooper, " is common everywhere west of the Sierra Nevada, on
dry plains and hillsides covered with chapparal and other shrubby
undergrowth, but it is not found in the forests. It is one of those
birds that can live where there is no water, except occasional fogs,
for six or eight months together. In these dreary ' barrens,' its
loud trill is heard more or less throughout the year, but especially
on spring mornings, when they answer each other from various
parts of the thickets. They have a variety of other notes resem-
bling those of the wrens, and correspond with them also in most
of their habits, hunting their insect prey in the vicinity of the
ground or on low trees, often holding their tails erect, and usually
so shy that they can only be seen by patient watching, when curi-
osity often brings them within a few feet of a person; and, as long
as he sits quiet, they will fearlessly hop around him as if fascinated."
Prumed Quail. Plumed Partridge. Mountain Quail. (Oreortyxpictus.)
Fig. 8, Male. Fig. 9, Female.
This fine bird is a common resident in the higher mountain
ranges of California and Oregon. It is usually met with in coveys
of about fifteen. They live on insects, seeds, and berries, and are
excellent food for the table. Cooper says:
II In habits and flight they have considerable resemblance to our
other Quails, but their cries are quite different. Their note of
alarm is a rather faint chirp, scarcely warning the sportsman of
their presence, before they fly. They scatter in all directions when