CHIHUAHUA WOODPECKER 39 



DRYOBATES VILLOSUS ICASTUS Oberholser 



CHIHUAHUA WOODPECKER 



Plate 6 



HABITS 



The hairy woodpeckers of the Canadian and Transition Zones in 

 the mountains of northwestern Mexico, southern Arizona, and 

 southern New Mexico are referable to this race. In describing and 

 naming it. Dr. H. C. Oberholser (1911a) characterized it as "simi- 

 lar to Dryohates villosus hyloscopus, but bill much smaller, and 

 wing slightly longer. * * * This bird is decidedly smaller than 

 Dryohates villosus leucothorectis, as well as noticeably smoky-tinged 

 on the under surface, instead of pure white ; and it is in size so very 

 much inferior to Dryohates villosus orius, that it is readily distin- 

 guishable." 



Harry S. Swarth (1904) says of the haunts of this woodpecker in 

 the Huachuca Mountains, Arizona: "Fairly abundant in the higher 

 parts of the mountains, from 7,000 feet upward. They may be seen 

 almost anywhere in that region, but for breeding purposes, seem to 

 particularly favor the dense thickets of quaking asp." In 1922, 

 Frank C. Willard and I found them breeding mainly among the tall 

 pines near the summit of these mountains, above 7,500 feet. From 

 here to the summit, about 9,000 feet, the land is rolling, mostly in 

 gentle slopes, and covered with a fine, open, parklike forest of tall 

 pines of two or three species, many of them from 80 to 100 feet 

 high. The many dead, standing trees and stumps offered suitable 

 nesting sites for pygmy nuthatches, Mexican creepers, and Chihua- 

 hua woodpeckers. We did not see any of these woodpeckers in the 

 spruce and fir belt, below 7,000 feet. 



Nesting. — On May 7, 1922, in the pine region near the summit of 

 the Huachuca Mountains, described above, we located two pairs of 

 Chihuahua woodpeckers and saw some new excavations in the dead 

 pine stubs, in which they seemed to be preparing to nest, but they 

 evidently had not yet laid their eggs. On May 15 we returned and 

 found two of the nests occupied (pi. 6). The first nest was about 

 40 feet from the ground in a dead pine stub at an elevation of about 

 7,900 feet; the cavity was about 15 inches deep and contained four 

 fresh eggs. Farther up, near the summit, at about 8,500 feet, we 

 found the second nest ; this was only about 15 feet up in a large dead 

 pine, in a hole we had previously passed by as an old one; but we 

 saw the female enter the hole and stay there, so we chopped it out 

 and found three heavily incubated eggs in a cavity about 12 inches 



