CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER 219 



the white and the yolk of the egg on the Avoodpecker's bill, as he raised 

 his head. After watching for some time, I attempted to frighten the 

 robber away, but experienced considerable difficulty in doing so. 

 When he finally left the nest the pewees continued to dart at him, 

 to drive him farther away. Soon one of the pewees, apparently the 

 female, returned to the nest, picked up an eggshell and flew off with 

 it. I was unable to see what she did with it. In half a minute she 

 returned and began incubating the remaining eggs." 



Behavior. — The California woodpecker flies in true woodpecker 

 fashion, an undulating flight, interspersed with long dips during 

 which the wings are partly closed and somewhat pressed against the 

 sides of the body ; during the rises the wings are flapped, displaying 

 the black and white markings conspicuously ; there is an upward sweep 

 before alighting. Grinnell and Storer (1924) say: "When alighting 

 on a tree trunk, these birds assume a vertical posture, head out, tail 

 appressed to the bark. They move up by a hitching process — head in, 

 tail out ; up ; tail in, head out. If a bird perches on a small horizontal 

 branch, his position is more likely to be diagonal than directly cross- 

 wise. If a bird alights on the square top of a fence post, he seems ill 

 at ease and soon backs over the edge into a more woodpecker-like 

 posture." 



Mr. Dawson (1923) writes: "A most characteristic flight-movement 

 is an exaggerated fluttering wherein progress is at a minimum and 

 exercise at a maxinmm. In this way, also, they ascend at acute 

 angles, sometimes almost vertically. With this movement alternates 

 much sailing with outspread wings, and certain tragic pauses where- 

 in the wings are quite folded." A similar flight is thus described by 

 Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) as follows: "Individual wood- 

 peckers were often seen making a kind of flight the object of which 

 we did not determine. A bird would fly in a nearly vertical direc- 

 tion from its perch for three meters or more and then commence an 

 irregular swooping flight, finally coming back to the original perch." 



M. P. Skinner says in his notes : "In many of their ways, motions, 

 and mannerisms these birds strongly resemble the red-headed wood- 

 peckers of Eastern United States. Often they are very quiet and re- 

 main motionless in one position for many minutes at a time. They 

 are as apt to perch crosswise as lengthwise of a horizontal, or nearly 

 horizontal, limb. At times, they hop along a limb, or the cross- 

 arm of an electric pole, while their bodies are turned a little sideways. 

 Although one exhibited the usual woodpecker habit of nervously 

 jumping down backward, and swaying from side to side, so as to be 

 seen first on one side of his dead stub and then on the other, he was 

 really noticeably quiet and motionless most of the time. One was 

 seen in the Yosemite Valley on the under side of a cottonwood twig, 

 clinging there with his back down." 



