iSSS.] Bendike on the Habits of the Genus Sphyrapicus. 239 



about nine miles north of Fort Klamath in the open pine forest on 

 the road to Crater Lake. It consisted of five eggs, slightly incu- 

 bated. The burrow was excavated in a partly decayed j^ine, whose 

 entire top for some twenty feet was dead. Height of burrow from 

 the ground about fifty feet. The man climbing the tree stated it 

 to be al)out eight inches deep, and al)()ut five inches wide at the 

 bottom and freshly made. A second set, of six fresh eggs, was 

 tidcen June I3, of the same year, about twelve miles north of the 

 post, at a still higher altitude than the first one. It came also out 

 of a pine about forty feet from the ground. A third nest, found 

 a week later near the same place, contained five yoimg just 

 hatched. This nest was in a dead aspen about twenty feet from 

 the ground. The full number of eggs laid appears to be five or 

 six. These are pure white, a trifle less lustrous than those of 

 S. ruber ; they are a little more elongated and pointed in shape, 

 some approaching a distinct ovate pyriform or pear shape, a 

 characteristic not apparently found in the eggs of the other 

 species of this genus. The average measurements of seventeen 

 specimens now before me are .97 X .67 inches. The largest in 

 the lot measures 1.03 X -68, the smallest .94 X .67 inches. 

 Only one brood is raised, and, like the two other species, it is 

 only a summer resident in the vicinity of Fort Klamath. Its food 

 seems to consist almost exclusively of insects and their larvaa, 

 various species of lepidoptera and an occasional grasshopper. 

 Berries I think are seldom used by them. 



I have found fully fledged young in July ; a young female shot 

 July 31 must have left the nest certainly by the beginning of the 

 month. When the young are large enough to fly they are not at 

 all rare at the lower altitude of Fort Klamath. They show the 

 same diflereuce in coloration in the sexes, in their first plumage, 

 with these exceptions : the young males lack the red on the throat, 

 which is replaced by dirty white, the sulphur yellow on the lower 

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

 some specimens, and the black on the back is much duller. The 

 young females difier likewise by the absence of yellow on the 

 belly, the black patch on the breast is wanting, the markings and 

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

 erally duller. 



In its undulating flight from tree to tree, this species utters a 

 shrill note like htiit^ Jnilt. 



