WESTERN BIRDS Sapsucker 



It is about nine and one-half inches long and is entirely 

 black above, save for a white rump, long white wing 

 patch, white specks on wing quills, and two stripes on 

 side of head. The throat and chest are black, the former 

 enclosing a red patch under bill. The belly is bright 

 yellow with black-and-white stripes on flanks and sides, 

 and the under wing and tail coverts are black and white. 

 So different is the female that formerly she was listed as 

 a different species, quite a predicament for her to be in 

 had she been obliged to follow the dictates of man. Her 

 entire body is barred with brown, or black and white, 

 save her head which is brown, her white rump, black 

 chest-patch, and yellow spot on middle belly. Some- 

 times a bird has a touch of red on the throat. 



Grinnell studied these birds in the San Bernardino 

 Mountains where he found them only among the tama- 

 rack pines of San Gorgonio peak, and among the silver 

 firs, tamarack and yellow pines around Bluff Lake. "In 

 the former locality the species was common for a Wood- 

 pecker, especially around Dry Lake, 9,000 feet altitude, 

 where several nests were found. Tamarack pines were 

 selected as nest trees, usually old ones with the core dead 

 and rotten but with a live shell on the outside. In one 

 found June 22, 1905, there were four holes drilled one 

 above the other about eighteen inches apart, and one of 

 these holes contained three small birds and two infertile 

 eggs." From several nests found which contained vary- 

 ing numbers of young and eggs, Grinnell judges the full 

 set of eggs to be from four to six. He also records that 

 "on June 18, 1907, a nest with small young was located 

 ten feet up in an exceptionally large nearly dead tama- 

 rack pine. This was one of the lowest of a series of 

 47 well-formed holes of similar external appearance, 

 which penetrated this one tree trunk on all sides up to 

 an estimated height of thirty-five feet. Besides these 

 there were many smaller drillings. When once selected 



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