Young. Entire upper plumage dark brown; on the back of the head and neck white at base, and edged with reddish; scapulars and greater coverts of the wing with large partially-concealed rufous spots; under parts reddish-white, every feather with a large terminal oblong spot of dark brown, and on the abdomen and tibiæ with numerous transverse bands of the same color; under tail coverts very pale reddish-white, with a few transverse spots and lines; inferior coverts of the wing pale reddish-white, with large brown spots. Hab. Canada and California. Spec. in Nat. Mus., Washington city. Obs. There is no other North American Buzzard with which there is any probability of the present bird being confounded by the student, on account of the peculiarity of its colors. In this character it bears a resemblance to some stages of plumage of _Circus hudsonius_, or to the European _Circus æruginosus_. It also is somewhat similar in colors, especially those of the young bird, to _Buteo pennsylvanicus_, but is much larger, and readily distinguished. [Illustration: Plate 32 The Black-breasted Woodpecker Melanerpes thyroideus (_Cassin_)] MELANERPES THYROIDEUS.—(Cassin.) The Black-breasted Woodpecker. PLATE XXXII.—Male. The species of Woodpeckers are more abundant in the regions on the Pacific Ocean or west of the Rocky mountains than in any other part of North America. Several of them inhabiting those countries are, too, amongst the handsomest birds of this family, as, for instance, Lewis’s Woodpecker (_Melanerpes torquatus_), a species now brought in almost every collection from California; the Red-breasted Woodpecker (_Melanerpes ruber_), a beautiful little species, with the head, neck and breast brilliant carmine; the Californian Woodpecker (_Melanerpes formicivorus_), figured in plate 2 of the present volume; and various others, attractive on account of either the beauty or the singularity of their colors. The extensive and but partially-explored forests of Northern California and Oregon are peculiarly well adapted to the habits of this group of birds. This is, however, not solely the reason that they are found there; but there are principles involved which are at present beyond the deepest reasoning of zoologists, and are as yet subjects of theory only. All that we can positively advance is, that of the Woodpeckers of North America, the greatest number of species, and of more handsome plumaged forms, than elsewhere in our portion of the continent, are inhabitants of California and Oregon; and that whatever causes have tended to the development of this family of birds, they have been more efficient in the regions alluded to, than elsewhere in North America.