Lewis' Woodpecker 235 



Woodpecker. The flight is undulating and charac- 

 teristic and the cry a loud " Tchur, tchur." 



The nest-site is sometimes a natural hole, sometimes 

 excavated by the birds in a semi-rotten tree, either a 

 pine, willow or cotton-wood ; the entrance is narrow, 

 only about an inch and three-quarters in diameter, 

 and the eggs are laid upon the wood chips. These are 

 five to seven in number, short, ovate and glossy -white, 

 and average '99 x '76. Gale considered it one of the 

 latest breeders, and found fresh eggs from June 10th 

 to July 1st ; and there is a set of seven eggs, taken June 

 16th near Greeley by I. C. Hall, and presented to the 

 Colorado College Museum. 



McGregor obtained a curious clutch of ten eggs, varying 

 from normal size to the size of a song-sparrow's, in Weld 

 CO., on Crow Creek. The smallest egg was quite fresh 

 but the normal ones heavily incubated. 



Genus ASYNDESMUS. 



Resembling Melanerpes in general structure, but the wing somewhat 

 longer, and folding almost to the tip of the tail, and the feathers of the 

 under-parts of peculiar structure ; the barbs stiff, bristle-like and loose ; 

 plumage glossy metallic -green above with a grey nuchal collar. 



Only one species ; confined to western North America. 



Lewis' Woodpecker. Asyndesmus lewisi. 



A.O.U. CheckUst no 408— Colorado Records— Allen 72, pp. 151, 

 180 (Melanerpes torquatus) ; Aiken 72, p. 207 ; Trippe 74, p. 292 ; 

 Henshaw 75, p. 397 ; Allen & Brewster 83, p. 196 ; Beckham 85, p. 143 ; 

 Drew 85, p. 17 ; Morrison 86, p. 153 ; 88, p. 108 ; 89, p. 145 ; Bendire 

 92, p. 117 ; Lowe 94, p. 268 ; Cooke 97, pp, 84, 162, 208 ; Brewster 98, 

 p. 188 ; Keyser 02, pp. 160-2 ; Dille 03, p. 74 ; Henderson 03, p. 235 ; 

 09, p. 231 ; Oilman 07, p. 154 ; Warren 08, p. 21 ; 09, p. 15 ; Rockwell 

 08, p. 164. 



Description. — Male — Above, including the wings and tail iridescent 

 bronzy-greenish-black, a narrow nuchal collar of grey continuous with 

 the breast, which is the same colour ; sides of the face, frontal region 

 and chin crimson, followed by a patch of black on the throat ; lower- 



