84 BULLETIN 17 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



California, north to extreme southern Nevada and southwestern 

 Utah, and south to northern Durango." It frequents the deserts, or 

 thej borders of the deserts, and the lower slopes of the mountains in 

 the Sonoran Zone, a hot, dry region where there are no trees of any 

 size and where this is about the only species of woodpecker found. 

 We never found it in the giant-cactus, or saguaro, region, where it 

 seemed to be replaced by the noisy Gila woodpecker and Mearns's 

 gilded flicker. W. Leon Dawson (1923) says: 



Of course it must not be understood that the Cactus Woodpecker tries to 

 live in the central wastes of the desert ; for however much it may forage 

 over the creosote and cholla patches, on occasion, it requires something of 

 more ample girth for a nesting site. Hence its breeding range is confined 

 to the more fruitful upper edges of the Lower Sonoran zone, and to the moister 

 bottoms. In the former situation the dried stalks of the agave and the lesser 

 yucca (whipplei) , or of the Joshua tree {Yucca arborescens) , and the Mohave 

 Yucca offer asylum. In the valley of the Colorado, fearing no rivalry from 

 D. puhescens tiirati, the Cactus Woodpecker is able to monopolize the willows 

 which grow so rankly along the lagoons. 



Keferring to Arizona, Harry S. Swarth (1904) says: "This wood- 

 pecker is seldom seen above 5,500 feet, and rarely ventures into the 

 canyons. On the plains below, wherever there is brush or trees, and 

 all along the San Pedro River it is very common, as in fact, I have 

 found it in all similar places I have visited in southern Arizona." 



Swarth says elsewhere (1929) : 



In southeastern Arizona, east of the Santa Rita Mountains, the vast areas 

 of prairie laud are for the most part unsuitable to this species. Wherever even 

 a scanty growth of chaparral has found a foothold, though, the Cactus Wood- 

 pecker is pretty sure to occur, for it does not require large trees. Along the 

 streams and washes in this same area, as elsewhere, it does frequent the syca- 

 mores and other larger growths, but these do not form the preferred habitat. 

 In the lowlands west of the Santa Rita Mountains this woodpecker is in the 

 surroundings that suit it best. It does not frequent the giant cactus (I do 

 not believe that there is a known instance of its nesting in one), but stays 

 nearer the ground, in cholla cactus, creosote bush, catclaw or other low- 

 growing vegetation. 



Nesting. — Major Bendire (1895) writes: 



In southern New Mexico and Arizona it nests sometimes in the flowering 

 stems of the agave plant and also in yucca trees, and I have found it nesting 

 on Rillito Creek, Arizona, in a small dead willow sapling not over SY2 inches 

 in diameter. The cavity was about 12 feet from the ground and 10 inches 

 in depth, and the entrance hole a trifle over 1% inches in diameter. Tliis 

 nest was found on June 8, 1872, and contained only two eggs, in which incuba- 

 tion was about one-half advanced ; the eggs laid on fine chips. The nesting 

 sites are placed at various distances from the ground, from 3 to 30, usually 

 from 6 to 14 feet. Dead branches of trees or partly decayed ones seem to be 

 preferred to live ones. * * * j^ nests by preference in mesquite trees, one 

 of our hardest woods, and it must require a long time to chisel out a nesting 

 site in one of these trees. While it is true that the heart is usually more or 

 less decayed, the birds have first to work through an inch or two of solid 

 wood which is almost impervious to a sharp ax. 



