NARROW-FRONTED WOODPECKER 223 



this mountain the first week in June, but the breeding season was not at its 

 height until the middle of that month. * * * 



Only one specimen was seen at Triunfo during the last two weeks of June, 

 but the bird was common and presumably breeding at Pierce's Ranch in July. 

 At the latter place it fairly swarmed in December, the resident colony being 

 probably augmented by large numbers of winter visitors from La Laguna, where 

 Mr. Frazar found only a few birds lingering in late November and early De- 

 cember. Along the road between San Jose del Cabo and Miraflores it was seen 

 in considerable numbers on November 15, and three were observed in some 

 evergreen oaks at Santiago on November 23. 



Nesting. — There is a set of four eggs in the Thayer collection, 

 apparently the same set referred to by Mr. Brewster, collected by 

 M. Abbott Frazar in the Sierra de la Laguna, on June 3, 1887; the 

 nest is described as 10 feet up in a dead pine stump; the entrance 

 measured 1% inches in diameter, and the cavity was 18 inches deep. 

 The measurements of these 4 eggs are 24.13 by 19.05, 22.61 by 19.56, 

 22.61 by 19.30, and 23.88 by 18.80 millimeters. 



The food and general habits of this woodpecker do not seem to 

 differ materially from those of the species elsewhere. It has similar 

 acorn-storing habits, for Mr. Frazar found "many dead pines liter- 

 ally stuffed full of acorns." 



BALANOSPHYRA FORMICIVORA ACULEATA (Mearns) 



MEARNS'S WOODPECKER 



Pl.\TB 28 



HABITS 



Along our southwestern border, from Arizona, New Mexico, afnd 

 western Texas southward over northwestern Mexico to Durango, we 

 find this race of ant-eating woodpecker. It was separated, named, 

 and described by Dr. Edgar A. Mearns (1890a) as follows: "General 

 size and coloring intermediate between M. formicivoims and M. 

 formicivo-nis lairdi', throat less yellow than in either of them; bill 

 shorter, more slender, and less arcuate than in either of the other 

 forms of M. formicivorus ; white striping of chest more than in the 

 Pacific coast form, less than in formiclvonisP 



He says of its haunts (1890b) : "A very common resident through 

 the pine belt, breeding plentifully. I have found it as high as the 

 spruce forests, but never in them. It is essentially a bird of the pines, 

 only occasionally descending to the cottonwoods of the low valleys. 

 The oaks which are scattered through the lower pine zone supply a 

 large share of its food." 



Henry W. Henshaw (1875) writes: "This woodpecker was first 

 observed when we neared Camp Apache, and, so far as my own ob- 

 servations go, its range in Arizona is coincident with that of the oaks, 

 the acorns of which appear to constitute a very important item in its 



