224 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



bill of fare. "We noticed it to the southward in every locality -where 

 oaks were found in sufficiently large groves to afford it at once a place 

 of shelter and an inexhaustible source whence to draw food." 



Harry S. Swarth (1904), writing of the Huachuca Mountains, 

 Ariz., says: "A most abundant summer resident in the lower parts 

 of the mountains; a few winter here but they are scarce during the 

 cold weather. I saw but two or three during February and the early 

 part of March, about the middle of March they began to arrive in 

 numbers, and by April 1 were most abundant. Primarily a bird of 

 the oak" woods they seldom venture into the higher parts of the 

 mountains, breeding almost entirely below 6,000 feet." 



Courtship. — We found this woodpecker quite common on the steep 

 slopes of the Huachuca Mountains in May 1922, especially in the 

 vicinity of Ramsay Canyon, between 5,000 and 6,000 feet elevation. 

 They were usually seen in the open groves of tall pines mixed with 

 oaks. A tall dead pine seemed to be one of their favorite resorts 

 for their courtship displays, which were both showy and noisy. They 

 reminded me of flickers as they dodged about the branches, chasing 

 each other and displaying their conspicuous markings. 



Nesting. — I have the records of four sets of eggs, all taken in the 

 Huachuca Mountains but in a variety of nesting sites. There are 

 two sets in the Thayer collection ; one, containing six eggs, was taken 

 on May 10, 1897, from a hole 8 inches deep in the dead limb of a 

 sycamore, 30 feet from the ground; the other set of five eggs was 

 taken on June 1, 1902, from a cavity 10 inches deep in an ash stump, 

 20 feet from the ground. A set of three eggs, in my collection, was 

 collected by O. W. Howard on May 31, 1901; the nest was 6 feet 

 above ground in a dead oak stump. Frank C. Willard took a set 

 of five eggs on May 31, 1899, from a cavity 15 inches deep, 35 feet up 

 in a large dead pine stub. 



Eggs. — Mearns's woodpecker evidently lays three to six eggs. 

 Major Bendire (1895) mentions a set of ten eggs, taken by F. H. 

 Fowler, which were "evidently the product of two females." The 

 eggs are pure white, of course, and vary from short-ovate to rounded- 

 ovate, with only a slight gloss. The measurements of 20 eggs aver- 

 age 24.07 by 18.91 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 26.8 by 17.8 (a long narrow egg), 23.9 by 20.8, and 22.4 by 

 19.5 millimeters. 



Plumages. — Mr. Swarth (1904) writes: 



About July 1 the young birds begin to inalce their appearance so like the 

 adults in general appearance that it is difficult to distinguish between them. 

 The young of both sexes usually have the entire crown red, as in the adult 

 male, but of a duller color, more of a brick red ; but one young female secured 

 has the red area very limited and coming to a point behind, so as to form a 

 small, triangular shai>ed patch on the crown. Of seventeen specimens col- 

 lected in the Huachucas, three show, more or less distinctly, white markings 



