LEWIS'S WOODPECKER. 119 



rarely utters a loud note. Even when suddenly alarmed, and when it seeks 

 safety in flight, the shrill " huit, huit" given on such occasions by nearly all of 

 our Woodpeckers is seldom uttered by it. Only when moving about in flocks, 

 on their first arrival in the spring- and during the mating season, which follows 

 shortly afterwards, does it indulge in a few rattling call notes, resembling those of 

 the Red-shafted Flicker, and it drums more or less, in a lazv sort of way, on the 

 dead top of a tall pine, or a suitable limb of a cottonwood or willow. Its flight 

 is not nearly as swift as that of the majority of our Woodpeckers, and reminds 

 one more of that of Clarke's Nutcracker and some of our Ja\-s, being accom- 

 panied by a considerable amoimt of flapping of the wings; it is also less 

 undulating and more direct. In summer its food consists mainly of insects of 

 different kinds, such as grasshoppers, large black crickets, ants, beetles, flies, larvte 

 of diff"erent kinds, as well as of berries, like wild strawberries and raspberries, 

 service berries and salmon berries, acorns, pine seeds, and juniper berries, while 

 in cultivated districts cherries and other small fruits enter into its daily bill of 

 fare. Here, when connnon, it may occasionally do some little damage in the 

 orchards, but this is fully compensated by the noxious insects it destroys at 

 the same time. In localities where grasshoppers are abundant they live on 

 these pests almost exclusively while they last. Mr. Shelly W. Denton tells me 

 he noticed this Woodpecker gathering numbers of May flies {Ephemera) and 

 sticking them in crevices of pines, generally in trees in which it nested, evi- 

 dently putting them awav tor future use, as they lasted but a few days. It is 

 an expert flycatcher, and has an extremely keen vision, sallying forth frequently 

 after some small insect when this is perhaps fully 100 feet from its perch. 

 Solitary trees, such as have a few dead limbs near their tops and afford a good 

 outlook over the surrounding country, are nnich liked hy them, and such a one 

 is almost certain to be tenanted by a pair of these Itirds, if there are any to be 

 found in the vicinity. I have rarely seen Lewis's Woodpecker in deej) forests; 

 far more frequently just on the outskirts of the pines, in juniper groves on the 

 table-lands bordering the pines, as well as in the deciduous timber along streams 

 in the lowlands, and occasionally even in solitary cottonwoods or willows, near 

 some little spring, in the drier sagebrush-covered flats, miles away from the 

 nearest forest; it is by no means as particular in the choice of a nesting site 

 as the majority of our Woodpeckers. Shortly after arriving on their l)reeding 

 grounds a suitable site is selected for the nest, and not infrequently the same 

 excavation is used for successive ^'ears. In "most cases the nestino- sites are 

 excavated either in the tops of tall pines or in dry cottonwoods, and in tall 

 rotten tree trunks, occasionally in partly decayed limbs of sycamores, oaks, and 

 less frequently in junij)ers and willows. The nests, as a rule, are not easily 

 gotten at, and quite a number are practicallv inaccessible, varying in height 

 from 6 to fully 100 feet from the ground. Dr. ( '. T. Cooke informs me that in 

 the Adcinity of Salem, Oregon, it usually nests in oaks, and is a rare breeder 

 there. Lieut. H. C. Benson, United States Army, has sent to the National Museum 

 a set of five eggs, taken near Gilroy, California, on May 8, 18'J4. 



