ALASKA THREE-TOED WOODPECKER 123 



the course of this stream and the Anderson Eiver, and westward, 

 covering all the wooded portions of Northern Alaska to the northern 

 tree-limit, * * * outnumbering by far the combined numbers of 

 all the other woodpeckers of that region. * * * On the Yukon 

 these birds are said to prefer the groves of poplar and willow to the 

 spruces." 



Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1900) says: "This, the only species of wood- 

 pecker detected by me in the Kowak region, was resident through- 

 out the year. It could scarcely be called common, though its borings 

 were noticed in nearly every tract of spruces visited." J. A. Munro 

 (1919), referring to the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, says: 

 "This species is resident and fairly common in Murray pine, Western 

 larch, and spruce forests. I have never found them in yellow pine 

 or Douglas fir country. They prefer the burnt areas of timber, and 

 specimens collected are generally stained with charcoal on the under- 

 parts." 



Niesting. — The nesting habits of this woodpecker do not differ 

 materially from those of its eastern relative. Bendire (1895) men- 

 tions two sets of eggs, collected by MacFarlane in the Anderson 

 Kiver region, of wdiich he says : "A single Qgg^ originally from a set 

 of three taken on May 30, 1863, accompanied by the female bird, was 

 taken from a cavity in a pine tree, 4 feet from the ground, and another 

 set of four, of which there are three eggs remaining, and likewise 

 accompanied by the male bird, was taken on June 5, 1864, from a 

 hole in a dry spruce, situated about 6 feet from the ground. The 

 eggs from the last set were said to have been lying on the decayed 

 dust of the tree, and were perfectly fresh when found." 



Laing and Taverner (1929) found an abandoned nest in the Cliit- 

 ina Eiver region, Alaska, of which they say : "Tree, about 15 inches 

 in diameter at butt, had a dead top and nest in this dead portion, 

 about 40 feet aloft. Dimensions as follows : diameter of door barely 

 2 inches ; depth of nest 91/^ inches ; greatest diameter 3 inches. Barrel 

 of nest quite cylindrical." 



There is a set of four eggs in my collection, taken by Kichard C. 

 Harlow near Belvedere, Alberta, on May 29, 1926. The nest was 

 about 20 feet above ground in a dead tamarack stub, among a scat- 

 tered growth of tamaracks, in a muskeg, near a lake; the eggs lay 

 on a bed of chips 10 inches below the entrance. 



Mr. Munro (1919) writes: "On May 28, 1917, I found a nest that 

 had just been finished, thirty feet from the ground in a dead Murray 

 pine. The entrance was smaller than would be expected, slightly over 

 one and a half inches, and the hole about fourteen inches deep." 



Eggs. — The eggs of the Alaska three-toed woodpecker are indis- 

 tinguishable from those of the eastern race. The measurements of 12 

 eggs average 22.08 by 17.09 millimeters; the eggs showing the four 



