WILLIAMSON'S SAPSITCKER. 101 



and tlie conclusion arrivcil at: 'Well, we shall have to try ag;am, with the hope 

 of better luck next time.' " 



Nidification is simihtr to that of the other species of the genus, with the 

 exception alread\- mentioned, of the difference in the kind of trees preferred. 

 The height of nesting sites varies considerably, say from o to (>() feet, and per- 

 haps still moi-e in exceptinnal cases. Fresh eggs may be looked for, according 

 to altitude, from May 20 to June Ifj; on May 2G, 1SS7, IMr. Gale took a fine 

 set of six, which I judge to have been perfectly fresh, from the exquisite maimer 

 in which tliev are prepared. 



I obtaine(l m\- first set of eggs of this species on June 3, 1SS3, about 9 

 miles north of Fort Klamath, in the open pine forest on the road to Crater Lake. 

 It consisted of five eggs, slightly incubated. The nesting site was excavated 

 in a j)artly decayed ])ine whose entire top for some 20 feet was dead; the height 

 of the excavation from the ground was about 50 feet. The man clind)ing the 

 tree reported it to be about S inches deep and about 5 inches wide at the bottom, 

 and freshlv made. A second set, of six fresh eggs, was taken June 12 of the 

 same year, about 12 miles north of the Post, at a still higher altitude than the 

 first one. It came also out of a ))ine about 40 feet from the ground. A third 

 nest, found a week later, near the same place, contained five young, just hatched. 

 This nest was in a dead aspen, aliout 20 feet from the ground. ( )nly one brood 

 is raised, and, like the two otiier species, it is only a siiunner resident, in the 

 vicinity of Fort Klamath. Its food seems to consist almost exclusively of insects 

 and their larva-, \arious species of lepidoptera, and an occasional grasshopper. 

 Berries, I think, are seldom eaten l)y them. 



I have found fully fiedged young in July; a young female, shot July 21, 

 must have left the nest certainly b}' the beginning of the month. When the 

 young are large enough to fiy, they are not at all rare at the lower altitude of 

 Fort Klamath. They show the same differences in coloration in the sexes in 

 their first plumage, witli tlie f illowing exceptions: The young males lack the red 

 on the throat, which is replaced l)y dirty white; the sulphur yellow on the lower 

 parts is mostly wanting, a slight trace of it being noticeable on some specimens; 

 and the Ijlack on the back is much duller. The young females differ likewise by 

 the absence of yellow on the bellv, the black patch on the-breast is wanting, the 

 markings and barrings on the upper parts are less distinct, and the colors gen- 

 ei'allv duller. In its uudulatiug flight from tree to tree this species utters a 

 shrill note, like "huit, huit." 



Williamson's Woodi)ecker winters in the lower valleys and foot hill regions 

 in the southern half of California, and southward in the pine foi-ests of Arizona, 

 New Mexico, western Texas, and probably also in similar localities of northern 

 Mexico. The number of eggs laid to a set varies from three to seven, sets of 

 five fir six being most often found. These, like all Woodjiecker's eggs, are ])uro 

 china-white in color; the shell is close grained, rather thin, and only slightly 

 glossy. In shajie tlusy vai-y from ovate to elongate ovate, and a few appi'oach 

 an ovate pyriform, a shape appareiith' not found in the eggs of the other species 

 of this genus. 



