428 THE WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER. 



conspicuous colors under our interior sun, and claims that the bird gains 

 inattention from its very unbirdlikeness. Dr. Merrill, who made a most 

 satisfactory study of this species near Fort Klamath in Oregon, regards the 

 bird in winter as the very simulacrum (if a l:)r()ken branch strongly shadowed, 

 and crowned with snow. 



Concerning its food haliits, 1 )r. Merrill sa_\'S''' : "I have rarely heard 

 the \Voodpecker hammer, and even tapping is rather uncomnmn. So far 

 as I have observed, and during the ^^Mnter I watched it carefully, its principal 

 supply of food is obtained in the bark, most of the pines having a very 

 rough bark, scalv and deeplv fissured. The bird uses its bill as a crowbar, 

 rather than as a hammer or chisel, i)r\ing off the successive scales and layers 

 of bark in a \'ery characteristic way. This explains the fact of its being 

 such a (juiet worker, and, as would l)e expected, it is most often seen 

 near the base of the tree, where the bark is thickest and roughest. It 

 must destroy immense numbers of Scolytidcc. whose larva; tunnel the bark 

 so extensively, and of other insects that crawl beneath the scales of bark 

 for shelter during winter. I have several times imitated the work (_>f this 

 bird by prying oft" the successive layers of bark, and have been astonished 

 at the great number of insects, and especially of spiders, sij exposed. As 

 a result of tliis, and of its habit of so searching for food, the Wbite-lieaded 

 Woodpeckers killed here were loaded with fat to a degree I have ne\'er 

 seen equallefl in any land binj, and scarcely surpassed by some Sandpipers 

 in autumn." 



The White-headed Woodpecker is a quiet bird in manner and voice. I 

 ha\e never heard it utter a sound even in the presence of a nest robber 

 but it is said to have "a sharp, clear '-ccitt-ivitt' " which it uses after the 

 fashion of the Harris Woodpecker, when, it flies from tree to tree. The 

 bird is quite wary; but when it cherishes suspicions, it flies away com- 

 posedh', with no such air of ostentatious oft'ense as Harris indulges on 

 occasion. 



The first nest reported from this State was found on Jul}- 2_'nd, 1896, 

 in the valley of the Methow, where this Woodpecker is not at all common. 

 The entrance showed like a clean-cut augur hole, one and five-eighths inches 

 in diameter, dri\'en in a live ])ine ; and was reached conveniently from liorse- 

 back. Four fresh eggs lay on a bed of chips, some eight inches down, and 

 thev were remarkable only for a somewhat uniform distribution of sparse, 

 black spots, — probably dots of adherent pitch, derived from the chips, and 

 soiled to blackness by contact with the sitting liird. 



a. The Auk, Vol. V. 



