WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKER. 97 



37. Sphyrapicus thyroideus ((Jassin). 



WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKER. 



PicuH thyroideus Cassin, Proceediugs Academy of Niitural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1850, 



1851, 349. 

 Sphyrnpicus thyroideus BAIUD, P>ird.s of North America, 1858, lOG. 

 (B 88, 89; ;504, 305; R .570; C 449; U 404.) 



Geographical range: Western North America; from the eastern slopes of the 

 Rocky Mountains west to tbe Pacific coast, and from Arizona and New Mexico northwest- 

 ward to southern British Columbia; east, in winter only, to western Texas (Concho and 

 Tom Cireen counties); south to Jalisco, Mexico. 



The southern hmits of the bree(hiig- ranj>'e of Williamson's Sapsueker, also 

 known as the "Black-breasted," "Brown," and "Round-headed" Woodpecker, as 

 far as they can be defined at jjreseiit, extend through the higher mountain ranges 

 of northern New Mexico, such as the Black and Culebra mountains, the Mogol- 

 lon and San Francisco mountains of Arizona, and northward along the eastern 

 slopes of the Rocky Mountains, where it has as yet been found breeding only in 

 Colorado. However, as several specimens have Ijeeu taken on I^aramie Peak, in 

 southeastern Wyoming, in August, this would indicate that it breeds at least as 

 far north in this direction. I have been unable to find anv records for Montana. 

 The northern limits of its summer range on the Pacific Coast include southern 

 British Columbia, where it has been taken near Similkameen in June, 1882, and 

 it breeds tln-oughout the Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon and 

 southward through the Sierra Nevadas, in southern California. 



Mr. F. Stephens writes me: "I have found Spluirapicus fliijroidcKS feeding 

 their young in Ta(|uitch Valle}*, in the San Jacinto Mountains, in southern Cali- 

 fornia, on June 20, 1893, at an altitude of about 7,500 feet, and shot the female. 

 The nest was some 45 feet from the groiuid, in a dead and broken fork of an 

 otherwise green fir. The nest contained three young, one of which laid dead 

 and decomposing in the bottom of the nest; the others were but a few days old. 

 In the week following I saw several more adults of this species, between 7,500 

 and S,500 feet altitude, and succeeded in shooting two more. The locality 

 where they were obtained is in about latitude 33^ 50'. I have also taken it 

 near Fort Bayard, New Mexico." 



Mr. Robert Ridgway obtained specimens near Carson Cit}', Nevada, and at 

 Parley's Park, in the Wahsatch Mountains, in Utah, where it is known to breed, 

 and Mr. H. W. Henshaw found it to be a fairly connnon summer resident in tlie 

 mountains near Fort Garland, in southern Colorado. 



Mr. W. G. Smith writes me: "Williamson's Sapsucker is a common summer 



resident in Estes Park, Colorado, wlierc it nests mostly in dead pines, often within 



a few feet of the ground, and again as high as 70 feet u\). Full sets of fresh 



eggs are usually found here during the first week in June. The male appears 



to me to do most of the incubating, and hereabouts it is most often found at 



altitudes between 7,000 and 8,000 feet, but I have also taken it at much higher 



ones, where it nests somewhat later." 

 16896— No. 3 — 7 



