158 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



brought food about twice as often as did the females, and frequently 

 removed the excrement of the young on leaving the nest, alighting on 

 the nearest tree for a moment to drop it and to clean their bills ; I did 

 not see either of the females remove any excreta. About four feet 

 above one of the holes was another occupied by a pair of pigmy nut- 

 hatches, but neither species paid any attention to the other when they 

 happened to arrive with food at the same time." 



Dr. Grinnell (1908) writes: "We usually located the nests by watch- 

 ing the movements of the parent birds, which flew from their forag- 

 ing places, often far distant, direct to the nest tree. The young 

 uttered a whinnying chorus of cries when fed, and the adults, though 

 generally very quiet, had a not loud explosive cry, more like the dis- 

 tant squall of a red-tailed hawk. The bill and throat of an adult male, 

 shot as it was approaching a nest, was crammed with large wood ants, 

 not the kind, however, that are common at lower altitudes and smell 

 so foully." 



Charles W. Michael (1935) watched a nest containing young, in the 

 Yosemite region, of which he says : 



When we arrived, about ten o'clock, both parent birds were bringing food. 

 We watched the birds for an hour and a half and in this period of time the 

 male made nine trips to the nest hole and the female made seven trips. The 

 young were small, as the parent birds went completely into the nest hole. The 

 birds, male and female, always came onto the tree trunk above the nest hole 

 and hitched jerkily downward until on a level with the hole. They landed 

 anywhere between five and fifteen feet above the hole ; the female was likely 

 to land nearest to the hole. * * * About every other trip excrement was 

 carried from the nest. When the male cleaned nest he carried the feces away 

 and dropi)ed them some distance from the nest. When the female cleaned nest 

 she came to the entrance from within, looked about and then dropped the 

 refuse before leaving the nest hole. 



Plumages. — The most remarkable characteristic of this woodpecker 

 is the striking difference in the plumages of the two sexes at all ages, 

 from the first plumage of the young bird to its maturity ; in most birds 

 the sexes are much alike in the juvenal plumage; but the young male 

 Williamson's sapsucker is much like the adult male, and the young 

 female is much like the adult female ; the principal character common 

 to both sexes at all ages is the white rump. 



These young sapsuckers are fully fledged before they leave the nest. 



The young male, in juvenal plumage in summer, differs from the 

 adult male in having a smaller and weaker bill and softer, more 

 blended plumage ; the black areas, except the wings and tail, which are 

 like those of the adult, are dull brownish black, instead of clear glossy 

 black; there are usually numerous elongated white spots or streaks, 

 more or less concealed, on the scapulars and upper back, and often a 

 few small whitish spots on the crown ; the chin and upper throat are 



