40 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



deep. Frank C. Willard (1918) tells of a pair of these woodpeckers 

 that "had nested for several seasons in the dead top of a tall pine. 

 One winter, this broke off and lodged in the top of an adjoining 

 pine. Even with their nest site in this apparently insecure position 

 the woodpeckers were unwilling to leave it, and their new nest was 

 found dug in the same old tree top in its inverted position." 



Eggs. — The eggs of the Cliihuahua woodpecker do not differ ma- 

 terially from those of other hairy woodpeckers of similar size. The 

 measurements of three eggs in the author's collection are 24.6 by 17.2, 

 24.5 by 17.7, and 24.6 by 18.0 millimeters. 



-W inter. — Mr. Swarth (1904) says: "They do not seem to remain 

 through the winter months; at any rate I saw none during Febru- 

 ary, 1903 nor did any appear until March 17, when I secured two 

 and saw one other. Ten days later they were quite abundant. The 

 winter of 1902-1903 was quite cold, with a great deal of snow on 

 the ground, and it is possible that with a milder winter they might 

 remain the year through. There does not seem to be any vertical 

 migration on the part of this woodpecker, for I saw none below 7,000 

 feet, and but very few as low as that." Bendire (1895), however, 

 writes: "In southern Arizona it does not appear to breed in the 

 lower valleys, but I have shot several near Tucson in winter." 



DRYOBATES VILLOSUS SITKENSIS Swarth 

 SITKA HAIRY WOODPECKER 



HABITS 



In the coast region of southeastern Alaska and northern British 

 Columbia we find a race that Harry S. Swarth (1911b) says, in 

 describing and naming it, "differs from D. v. harrisi mainly in the 

 very much paler, less smoky hue of the lower parts, and the more 

 buffy coloration of the nasal tufts. Somewhat like D. v. picoideus^ 

 but paler colored below, and lacking the barred rectrices of that race." 

 He says elsewhere (1922) : 



Sitkensis, in its relatively light ventral coloration, is intermediate between 

 the extremely dark harrisi and the white-breasted monticola. The dark-breasted 

 lype of coloration reaches its extreme development in picoideus of the Queen 

 Charlotte Islands, interposed between the ranges of harrisi and sitkensis. Thus, 

 while specimens of sitkensis as laid out in trays may be arranged to illustrate 

 a step between harrisi and monticola, the geographical distribution of the 

 several forms is not in accordance with this idea. The geographical chains 

 appear to lie as follows: Starting with the white-breasted races of the interior 

 of the northwest, septentrionalis and monticola, there is an extension westward 

 on the coast of a slightly darker breasted race, sitkensis. Starting again with 

 the dark breasted type, harrisi, of the Puget Sound region, and going north- 

 ward, we reach the extremely dark colored picoideus. Thus, sitkensis and 

 harrisi are really far apart genetically, and the appearance of sitkensis as a 



