ALPINE THREE-TOED WOODPECKER 125 



what commoner than arcticus; in the Transition zone, it occurs only 

 about one-third as frequently as does the larger bird." 



M, P. Skinner says, in his Yellowstone National Park notes : "This 

 woodpecker is rather uncommon, but I have seen it in coniferous 

 forests between 0,500 and 8,000 feet, in firs, lodgepole pine, and Engel- 

 mann spruce. I have also seen it on dead trees and on telephone poles. 

 I have seen this woodpecker in this Park only between May and 

 October." 



Nesting. — At an altitude of about 9,000 feet in the mountains of 

 Colorado, in or near Estes Park, John H. Flanagan (1911) collected 

 a set of four eggs of the alpine three-toed woodpecker. "The hole 

 was in an aspen stub, nine feet from the ground and about a foot or 

 eighteen inches from the top, and just before the guide reached the 

 hole the bird flew out. * * * 



"The entrance to the nesting cavity was about one and one-half 

 inches in diameter ; the cavity itself about nine or ten inches in depth 

 and quite large at the bottom. The eggs were laid on a few chips." 



In north-central Colorado, Edv*-in R. Warren (1912) found a 

 nest of this woodpecker "in a dead Engelmann spruce, which was 

 twenty-five inches in diameter at the base, and twenty at the nest 

 hole, the latter being seven feet above ground. The nest was eight 

 inches deep, the entrance one and three-quarters inches in diameter; 

 the thickness of the wood on the front side of the hole was two and 

 three-quarters inches, and the cavity was five inches from front to 

 back, and three wide. There were a few chips in the bottom, as well 

 as a few of the birds' droppings. There were two young, about ready 

 to fly, though I had no difficulty in posing them on the tree for pic- 

 tures ; they showed little or no fear." 



Eandolph Jenks (1934) discovered two nests of the alpine three- 

 toed woodpecker on the Kaibab Plateau, near the east rim of the 

 Grand Canyon, in northern Arizona. One was in "a hole in an aspen 

 tree, two and one-half inches in diameter, opening to the southeast, 

 twelve feet from the ground. The cavity was eight inches deep and 

 the nest was lined with a thick layer of maggot-infested sawdust. 

 In spite of the crawling competitors, the nestlings, a male and a 

 female, seemed quite contented." This was on June 30, 1931. Sev- 

 eral days later another nest was found, also on the Plateau, at an 

 elevation of 8,100 feet ; this nest was "in a hole about sixty feet above 

 the ground in a western yellow pine." 



Dr. Edgar A. Mearns (1890b) writes: 



The Alpine Three-toed Woodpecker ))reeds commonly throughout the pine belt, 

 seldom ascending far into the spruce woods of the highest peaks [in the moun- 

 tains of Arizona]. On tlie northwestern slope of San Francisco Mountain I dis- 

 covered a nest of this species on June 8, 1887. The female was seen alone peck- 

 ing at a large yellow pine, which, although dead, still retained its bark and was 



