160 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



Om my first excursion to some meadows and wooded 

 low-grounds south of Colorado Springs, while listening 

 to a concert given by western meadow-larks, my atten- 

 tion was attracted to a large, black bird circling about 

 the fields and then alighting on a fence-post. My first 

 thought was : " It is only a crow blackbird." But on 

 second thought I decided that the crow blackbird did 

 not soar and circle about in this manner. At all events, 

 there seemed to be something slightly peculiar about 

 this bird's behavior, so I went nearer to inspect him, 

 when he left his perch on the post, flapped around 

 over the meadow, and finally flew to a large, partially 

 decayed cottonwood tree in a pasture field. If I could 

 believe my eyes, he clung to the upright stems of 

 the branches after the style of a woodpecker ! That 

 was queer indeed — a woodpecker that looked precisely 

 like a blackbird ! Such a featherland oddity was 

 certainly foreign to any of my calculations ; for, it 

 must be remembered, this was prior to my making 

 acquaintance with Williamson"'s sapsucker. 



Closer inspection proved that this bird was actually 

 hitching up and down the branches of the tree in the 

 regular woodpecker fashion. Presently he slipped into 

 a hole in a large limb, and the loud, eager chirping 

 of young birds was heard. It Mas not long before 

 his mate appeared, entered the cavity, and fed the 

 clamorous brood. The birds proved to be Lewis's 



