QUEEN CHARLOTTE WOODPECKER 37 



measurements of 33 eggs average 24.89 by 18.49 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 28.08 by 18.03, 27.0 by 20.1, 

 23.37 by 17.78, and 24.38 by 17.27 millimeters. 



Food. — ^Mr. Skinner says, in his notes, that this woodpecker "seeks 

 its food on the trunks of lodgepole and -flexilis pines, cedars, firs, 

 aspens, willows, and even electric-light and telephone poles; it pre- 

 fers dead and diseased trees and stubs to work on, probably because 

 of more borers and grubs. At Basin, and over 7,000 feet elevation, 

 I found a female where I could watch her, only 5 feet away from 

 the lodgepole trunk on which she was working. She worked down, 

 tapping here and there as she went. Whenever a tap revealed a 

 borer, she scaled off the bark with quick right and left strokes, hav- 

 ing a slight lever motion at the end, and always secured from one 

 to six bark-borer grubs. Evidently the tap told her whether it was 

 worth while to search further, for she never made a mistake and 

 performed no useless labor." 



J. A. Munro (1930) writes: "During the winter of 1928-29 a male 

 hairy woodpecker frequently was seen feeding on Virginia creeper 

 berries in competition with several red-shafted flickers. On one 

 occasion the same bird visited an apple tree, attracted by a few apples 

 that still clung to the bare branches. Standing crossways on a branch, 

 in the ordinary position of a perching bird, he rapidly stabbed his 

 bill downward into the top of an apple. After doing this several 

 times he flew to another portion of the tree and repeated the per- 

 formance." 



DRYOBATES VILLOSUS PICOIDEUS Osgood 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE WOODPECKER 



HABITS 



Dr. "Wilfred H. Osgood (1901) described the hairy woodpecker of 

 the Queen Charlotte Islands, as a full species, Dryohates picoideus. 

 He says it can be distinguished from all other members of the viUosus 

 group by the black markings on the back and characterizes it as 

 "similar in general to Dryohates v. harrisi,' bill slightly smaller; mid- 

 dle of back barred and spotted with black; flanks streaked with 

 black." He says that this woodpecker is not abundant on the islands; 

 during a period of over a month spent in active collecting he saw 

 only six, all of which were collected. 



I cannot find that anything has been published on the habits of the 

 Queen Charlotte woodpecker, which probably do not differ essentially 

 from those of Aarm?', to which it is closely related and which inhabits 

 a similar, humid coast environment. There are a number of skins of 



