GOLDEN-FRONTED WOODPECKER 247 



up in an anaqiia tree and the other about 12 feet from the ground in a 

 willow. 



Eggs. — The golden- fronted woodpecker lays four to seven eggs to 

 a set, usually four or five. The eggs are pure white and vary from 

 ovate to short or rounded-ovate, with very little or no gloss when 

 fresh. 



The measurements of 59 eggs average 25.82 by 19.50 millimeters; 

 the eggs showing the four extremes measure 28.45 by 20.07, 27.94 by 

 20.83, 22.86 by 17.78, and 25.91 by 18.03 millimeters. 



Young. — Major Bendire (1895) says: "Incubation lasts about four- 

 teen days, and both sexes share this duty. * * * It is probable 

 that two broods are occasionally raised in a season, as there are sets 

 of eggs in the collection taken in June, and two of these in the latter 

 part of this month." But Mr. Simmons (1925) says "probably only 

 one brood." Both parents assist in the care of the young. In sum- 

 mer and fall the young may be seen traveling about with their par- 

 ents in family parties, but they separate before winter. 



Plumages. — Probably the young are hatched naked and blind, as 

 with other woodpeckers, and the juvenal plumage is acquired before 

 the young bird leaves the nest. The young male, in juvenal plum- 

 age, is similar to the adult male but is everywhere duller, with the 

 markings less clearly defined; the red crown patch is smaller and 

 consists of somewhat scattered red feathers ; there is usually more or 

 less indistinct dusky barring on the forehead, which is duller yellow 

 than in the adult; the yellow of the hind neck is paler and duller; 

 the chest is usually more or less streaked with dusky, and the yellow 

 on the abdomen is paler. The young female is similar to the young 

 male but without any red on the head, the yellow band on the hind 

 neck paler, and the under parts all paler. This juvenal plumage is 

 apparently worn all through fall and early winter ; I have seen it as 

 late as January 5; but probably a protracted molt during fall and 

 winter produces a gradual change into a plumage that is practically 

 adult. Adults have a complete postnuptial molt late in summer and 

 fall, mainly in August and September, according to what few molting 

 specimens I have seen. 



Food. — Bendire (1895) says: "Their food consists of insects of 

 various kinds, such as beetles, ants, grasshoppers, also larvae, acorns, 

 Indian corn, and different kinds of wild berries and fruit. Consid- 

 ered from an economic point of view, this woodpecker certainly does 

 more good than harm, and the only thing that can be said against it 

 is that in certain localities where it is common it may make itself 

 more or less of a nuisance by injuring telegraph poles." In this 

 connection, George B. Sennett (1879) makes the following interest- 

 ing remark: "The numerous holes which I observed the previous 

 season in the telegraph poles, and which I inferred might be nests 



