BATCHELDER'S WOODPECKER 51 



DRYOBATES PUBESCENS LEUCURUS (Hartlanb) 

 BATCHELDER'S WOODPECKER 

 HABITS 



The downy woodpecker inhabiting the Rocky Mountains and ad- 

 jacent regions from southern Alaska to Arizona and New Mexico is 

 described by Ridgway (1914) as "similar in large size and whiteness of 

 under parts to 1). p. nelsoni, but with less of white on wing-coverts, 

 sometimes with none, the spots, when present, only on terminal or 

 (usually) subterminal portion, and on only a few of the covert fea- 

 tures." It also differs from it in a "tendency to reduction or absence 

 of bars on lateral rectrices." 



The common name of this woodpecker is in honor of Charles F. 

 Batchelder, who first (1889) called the attention of American orni- 

 thologists to the characters of this race under the name D. j). oreoecus. 

 Batchelder's name was used in the 1895 A. O. U. Check-List, but it 

 was later found to be antedated by Dinjohates homorus of Cabanis and 

 Heine, which was adopted in the 1910 Check-List. This was found to 

 be still further antedated by the name Picus leucurm, given to the 

 downy woodpecker of the Rocky Mountains by Hartlaub in 1852. 

 It seems rather strange that this race remained so long unrecognized 

 in this country. This may be due to the fact that this woodpecker 

 seems to be a comparatively rare bird throughout most of its range. 



The Weydemeyers (1928) say of its occurrence in northwestern 

 Montana : 



A rather rare permanent resident, irregular in winter. Occurs throughout 

 the county, but is rare at high elevations. It frequents mixed broad-leaf and 

 conifer woods along the lower streams, where it undoubtedly breeds in preference 

 to other locations. During winter it is often seen about farmsteads and pas- 

 tures, and in bordering woods of Douglas fir, yellow pine, and larch. In the 

 Canadian zone it occurs sparingly in lodgepole pine and alpine fir {Ahies 

 lasiocarpa) woods, usually along streams. 



In the western half of the county, an observer may consider himself fortunate 

 to see an individual of this species twice a week. In the eastern portion, during 

 July and August, along Transition zone streams, one or two birds may be seen 

 nearly every day. 



We have obtained no definite nesting dates for this species, although It evi- 

 dently breeds in suitable locations. On July 22, 1923, a brood of young on the 

 wing was seen near Fortine in woods of spruce and aspen, in the Transition 

 zone, at 2,960 feet altitude. 



Major Bendire (1895) writes: 



Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, United States Army, reports it breeding sparingly 

 throughout the Pinus ponderosa belt, ascending into the Spruce zone, on the San 

 Francisco cone, and considers it the rarest of the woodpeckers found in Arizona. 

 Mr. Denis Gale took a nest and eggs of this subspecies in Boulder County, 

 Colorado, on June 12, 1889. The excavation was found in a half-dead aspen, 

 30 feet from the ground, and presumably well up in the mountains, as Mr. 



