LEWIS'S WOODPECKER 235 



Mr. Neff (1928) writes: 



This species, more than all its kin, moves in flocks in autumn. After the 

 nesting season it gathers into flocks of from 10 to 300 or more. In such numbers 

 it drops down into the fruit districts of southern Oregon and of northern Cali- 

 fornia, and disaster results. * * * 



On August 29, the writer, accompanied by Mr. Richardson, made a trip to 

 Lake of the Woods, Klamath County. Just south of Ashland a few scattered 

 individuals were seen. As the Cascade summit was approached many were seen 

 in the open fields and meadows. In the flats near the lake, and in the open 

 meadows near Rainbow Creek, numbers were found feeding on the mountain 

 huckleberries. Returning to Ashland on September 1, huge flocks of these birds 

 could be seen moving steadily toward the lower Valley. * * * 



On September 7, also, the growers in the vicinity of Medford reported the 

 arrival of the first birds there. Flocks were present until September 19, when 

 almost every bird in the area disappeared. A few scattering individuals were 

 left in various foothill areas, but these left during November. The areas in 

 which they wintered so abundantly during the 1924-5 season were totally deserted 

 during the 1925-6 season, and not until spring did they return to this area. 



Herbert Brown (1902) states that Lewis's woodpeckers appeared in 

 large numbers, during the fall of 1884, in the Santa Cruz Valley, Ariz., 

 the first he had seen there for 20 years. He saw the first one on 

 September 28 and ten on the 30th. They vrere very abundant at times 

 during October but disappeared at intervals. They were last seen on 

 November 16. 



Winter. — ^W. E. D. Scott (1886) says of its winter habits in Arizona : 



About my house it generally appeared about the 20th of September, and some 

 j^ears was very abundant. It stays as late as April 20, and then is not seen 

 again till fall, though I have seen the species in the pine region above me late 

 in the spring. In 1884, there was an unprecedented abundance of the species 

 throughout the entire region under consideration. They came in countless num- 

 bers about the ranches, both on the San Pedro and near Tucson. Arriving early 

 in September, they did great injury to the fruit crops raised in these regions, and 

 I heard much complaint of them. In the oak woods they were equally abundant, 

 living almost altogether on acorns, but spending much of the warmer portion 

 of the day catching insects on the wing, very much as any of the larger fly- 

 catchers do, only that on leaving the perch of observation or rest, the flight is 

 much more prolonged than in the flycatchers that I have seen. 



Lewis's woodpeckers sometimes remain in winter, in small numbers, 

 as far north as the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Accord- 

 ing to Suckley and Cooper (1860), they are "constant winter resi- 

 dents" near Fort Dalles on the Columbia River. Of their winter 

 habits, Suckley writes : 



They seem in winter to be semi-gregarious, flying singly, yet still keeping 

 more or less in each other's company. Their flight at this season is high and very 

 erratic, resembling much, in its characteristic peculiarities, that of the swallow. 

 On warm days they keep tap a lively chattering noise, unlike, in character, that 

 of any other woodpecker that I have heard. During the cold season they are so 

 shy that it is difficult to shoot them, as at the least alarm they betake themselves 

 to the tops of the highest trees in the vicinity. They at that season subsist 



