288 BULLETIN 17 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the rocky mountain slopes and npward tlirongli the Hudsonian zone, 

 where the species ranges to timberline." 



Milton P, Skinner says in his Yellowstone Park notes: "This bird 

 is found at all elevations from the lowest at 5,300 feet to timberline 

 at 9,500 feet, and in practically all kinds of habitat except the largest 

 opens, and even there I have seen it flying across from side to side. It 

 is in the sagebrush areas, in the borderland between forest and open, 

 in detached groves, and even in heavy forest. 



"They are often seen on the ground, especially in May, but also in 

 June and July. Sometimes they are in the road. I have seen them 

 frequently in the grass and perched on a bowlder or a prostrate log. 

 In addition to these treeless and brushless localities, I often see flick- 

 ers on the ground imder sagebrushes and greasewood ; on the ground 

 in a grove of cedars and limber pines ; under aspens, willows, cedars, 

 firs; and on the ground amid the stumps of a former fir forest. I 

 have seen them in groves of mixed lodgepole pines and aspens and in 

 meadow^s where there w^ere only groves of willow bushes." 



Courtship. — In the same notes Mr. Skinner says: "On April 29, 

 1915, I saw^ a pair of flickers 'dancing.' They were on a dead lodge- 

 pole, and although there w^as not much movement of the feet, the 

 body w^as bent from side to side and there was a constant 'juggling' 

 or 'jigging' motion. The head was tilted back and the bill pointed 

 up at an angle of sixty degrees, with tlie neck outstretched. The neck, 

 head, and bill were in constant motion; the motion of the bill re- 

 minded me of a musical director's baton. Intervals of rest alternated 

 with periods of motion ; the whole thing lasted perhaps 5 minutes." 



Nesting. — Major Bendire (1895) says on this subject: 



Its favorite nesting sites are old rotten stubs or trees, sueli as cottonwoods, 

 willows, sycamores, junipers, oaks, and pines. It nests also in holes iii banks, 

 In the sides of houses, in sate posts, etc. * * * 



Among some peculiar nesting sites of this species the following deserve 

 mention : 



Mr. Walter E. Bryant gives the following: "One of these was in a bridge 

 bulkhead, a few feet above the Carson River, Nevada. The interior of the 

 structure was filled with gravel and large stones, among which the eggs were 

 deposited. Another pair Tised a target butt, at a much-frequented range, as a 

 substitute for a stump. A tliird nest v/as in a sand banlv, 3 feet from the 

 top and 10 from the creek. This hole was apparently specially prepared, and 

 not one made by a ground squirrel, such holes being sometimes used by 

 these birds." 



Mr. Cliarles A. Allen, of Nicasio, Calif., found a pair of red-shafted flickers 

 nesting in a similar situation in a creeli bank, the burrow containing seven 

 eggs, whicli he took. About ten days later, happening to pass tlie same spot, 

 he examined the hole again and found it occupied by a California Screech Owl, 

 whicli in the meantime had deposited four eggs. Some two weeks subsequently 

 he examined it for a third time, and on this occasion the tenant proved to be a 

 Sparrow Hawk, which was setting on five liandsome eggs, lliere was no 

 nesting material present on any occasion, the eggs lying on some loose dirt. 



