36 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and Wyoming and probably with the more western races west of the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



Milton P. Skinner tells me that in the Yellowstone National Park 

 it "occurs at all elevations from the lowest at 5,500 feet to timberline at 

 9,500 feet above sea level, but never far from a tree of some kind. It is 

 a resident bird here but moves down from the mountain heights at the 

 approach of winter." 



Aretas A. Saunders (1921) says of its status in Montana: "A com- 

 mon permanent resident throughout the western half of the state in 

 the mountains. Winters mainly in the valleys in cottonwood groves, 

 but does not breed there. * * * The eastern limits of its range are 

 evidently in the eastern foothills of the mountains. Just what form 

 breeds in the more eastern mountain ranges is not definitely deter- 

 mined. In the mountains this bird has been recorded by all observers. 

 It is common everywhere, and usually the commonest of the mountain 

 woodpeckers." 



Nesting. — The following remarks by Major Bendire (1895), under 

 hyloscopus^ evidently refer to this subspecies : "Mr. Denis Gale found 

 it breeding in Boulder County, Colorado, on May 28, 1886, in a live 

 aspen tree, at an altitude of about 8,500 feet. The nest contained 

 five eggs, in which incubation was somewhat advanced. Mr. William 

 G. Smith also reports it as common in Colorado, coming down into the 

 valleys in winter. He says it is the earliest of the Woodpeckers to 

 breed, that it commences nesting in the latter part of April, and usu- 

 ally excavates its holes in old dead pines, frequently at a considerable 

 distance from the ground, and that he has seen full-grown young by 

 June 1." 



J. K. Jensen (1923) says of this woodpecker, in northern Santa Fe 

 County, N. Mex. : 



Quite common in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, from 8,000 to 11,000 feet. 

 June 21, 1920, I found a nest ttiirty feet up in a large quaking aspen. This 

 tree stands on the edge of a place where an avalanche has plowed its way down 

 through the timber on the mountain side, depositing trees and rocks in a great 

 heap for hundreds of feet around the tree. The nest contained young, and 

 judging from the noise they made, were quite well developed. The parent birds 

 were very noisy. 



May 22, 1921, I made my way through four feet of snow to the same tree. A 

 new nest had been made, and the female flew off when I was about 150 feet 

 away. I cut into the nest and found a set of four eggs on which incubation had 

 just commenced. The altitude at this point is 11,000 feet. May 26, 1922, I found 

 a nest with young about seventy-five feet up in an aspen. This was in Santa Fe 

 Canyon at an altitude of 8,000 feet. 



Eggs. — The eggs of the Rocky Mountain hairy woodpecker are 

 similar to the eggs of other hairy woodpeckers of similar size. The 



