234 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



in flocks, on tlieir first arrival in the spring and during the mating 

 season, which follows shortly afterwards, does it indulge in a few 

 rattling call notes, resembling those of the Red-shafted Flicker, and 

 it drums more or less, in a lazy sort of way, on the dead top of a tall 

 pine, or a suitable limb of a cottonwood or willow." 



Ralph Hoffmann (1927) writes : "For a great part of the year the 

 Lewis woodpecker is a silent bird, uttering not even a call note, but 

 in the mating season it utters a harsh chirr and a high-pitched squall- 

 ing chee-up, repeated at rather long intervals. Adult birds utter near 

 the nest a series of sharp metallic cries like the syllable ick^ ick, ich^ 

 which when rapidly repeated become a rattle. The young in the 

 nest utter the usual hissing sound of young woodpeckers." 



Field marks. — ^Lewis's woodpecker should be easily recognized. 

 At a distance it appears likes a black bird, the back and the upper and 

 lower surfaces of the wings being black, with no conspicuous white 

 showing anywhere, and with a crowlike flight, broad wings and black 

 tail. At short range, the greenish sheen of the back may glisten in 

 the sunlight, and the silvery gray collar and pinkish underparts may 

 be seen, as well as the gray upper breast and perhaps the red face. 



Fall. — This woodpecker seems to be a highly migratory species. 

 From the northern parts of its range it disappears almost entirely 

 during winter; and throughout its entire range it is given to exten- 

 sive wanderings, being very abundant in certain localities during fall 

 and winter in certain seasons and at other seasons entirely absent. The 

 species is highly gregarious in fall, wandering about in large flocks in 

 search for suitable food supplies. 



Mr. Rathbun tells me that this woodpecker is found in Washington 

 from April to about November and occasionally is seen in winter, and 

 says : "In this part [western] of the State the fall migration of this 

 bird seems to begin earl}^ in September. Once, very early in the month, 

 on our arrival at a lake not far from Seattle, we noticed a large 

 number of these woodpeckers in three or four deciduous trees along the 

 shore. Occasionally, a few of the birds would make short flights after 

 insects in the air, but by far the larger number were more or less 

 inactive and appeared to be resting, as some remained motionless where 

 perched. And when one did change its position, it did this in a list- 

 less manner. Our arrival at the lake was rather late in the afternoon, 

 and from the actions of the birds as a whole we gained the impression 

 that they must have made quite an extended flight that day on their 

 movement southward. On several other occasions in September we 

 have seen this woodpecker as it was migrating. In each case a good 

 many were in company, though rather loosely associated. And once, 

 moving in a southerly direction with them for a very brief time, were 

 numbers of nighthawks, swallows, and Vaux's swifts flying around 

 for insects." 



