CACTUS WOODPECKER 85 



Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1928) says that in New Mexico the 

 nests are "from 2 to 30 feet from the ground in holes in mesquite, 

 screw bean, palo verde, hackberry, and China trees, willows, cotton- 

 woods, walnuts, oaks, and other trees, telegraph poles, fence posts, 

 and stalks of agave, yucca, and cactus." 



While collecting with Frank C. Willard, in southern Arizona, we 

 found the cactus woodpecker fairly common about Tombstone and 

 near Fairbanks on the San Pedro River. Near the former place, one 

 nest was 6V2 feet up in a fence post ; the cavity was about 10 inches 

 deep and 314 inches in diameter at the bottom; another nest was in 

 a cavity 12 inches deep in the dry stalk of a mescal about 5 feet from 

 the ground. In the valley of the San Pedro River, we found a nest 

 about 12 feet from the ground in a willow stub; and another nest 

 was located in a stump of a willow beside a fence; it was only 6 

 feet up in the solid part of the stub, and so well concealed behind a 

 bunch of sprouts that we had passed it many times without seeing it. 



Mr. Willard (1918) says: 



Along the Sau Pedro River the Cactus Woodpecker (Dryobates s. cactophilus) 

 is the only one nesting at all commonly. In the lines of willows bordering the 

 irrigation ditches and in all the small groups found along the river bants, I 

 had quite a list of pairs whose nests I could count upon finding within certain 

 circumscribed areas. They exhibited individual characteristics. One pair 

 never dug its nest lower than twenty feet from the ground and usually selected 

 a site that overhung the water. Another liked short stubs not over five or 

 six feet tall. Another was partial to fence posts. While these selections were 

 not invariably followed they were so usual that I always began my search by 

 examining all the available sites of that character before looking at others and 

 was usually successful in my first search." 



Eggs. — The cactus woodpecker lays 2 to 6 eggs, usually 4 or 5. 

 These are usually oval or short oval, sometimes elliptical-oval or el- 

 liptical-ovate. They are pure white and more or less glossy. The 

 measurements of 18 eggs average 21.48 by 16.18 millimeters ; the eggs 

 showing the four extremes measure 23.02 by 16.67, 22.5 by 17.0, and 

 19.2 by 15.1 millimeters. Bendire (1895) says that incubation lasts 

 for about 13 days and is shared by both sexes. 



Plumages. — The young are probably hatched naked (I have not 

 seen any), as is the case with other woodpeckers, but the juvenal 

 plumage is acquired before the young bird leaves the nest. This first 

 plumage is much like that of the adult male, but the sexes are not 

 quite alike. In the young male, the forehead, sides of the occiput, 

 and the nape are uniform black; only the croAvn is scarlet, more or 

 less dotted with white. The young female is similar to the young 

 male, except that there is usually much less scarlet on the crown, 

 often only a few scarlet tips. In both sexes the back is barred with 

 dull black and grayish white, instead of the clear black and white of 

 the adult ; the under parts are "vinaceous-butf," faintly spotted on the 



