218 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



dent of the aspen groves on the mountains in the southwestern por- 

 tion of Oregon the region about Fort Klamath, etc. According to 

 his observations its nesting is very similar to S. v. nuchalis breeding 

 in healthy live aspen trees, making a gourd-shaped nest cavity from 

 six to ten inches deep, four or five inches wide at the bottom and three 

 inches near the top. It is situated from fifteen to twenty-five feet from 

 the ground, and usually excavated below the first limb of the tree. A 

 sure sign of a nest was the chips scattered about the base of the tree. 

 Five or six eggs are laid, and fresh eggs may be looked for in the 

 neighborhood of Fort Klamath from May 20 to June 5. Captain Ben- 

 dire took the first set of eggs May 23, 1883, and he has taken nearly 

 fresh eggs as late as June 13. When blown the eggs are of a pure del- 

 icate white, the shell showing a moderate amount of lustre. There is 

 considerable variation in their shape, running through all the differ- 

 ent ovates to an elongate-ovate. The average measurements of sixty 

 specimens are .94X.68; the largest egg i.oox.yo; the smallest .86 x 

 .78. A set of five eggs is in Mr. Norris' collection, taken with the 

 female bird, near Salem, Oregon, April 13, 1888, from a cavity in a 

 pDttonwood, twenty-five feet from the ground. They measure i.oox 

 73) -Q 1 *-? 1 ) -94 x.7o,.9ox .7 -i, .90x71. 



404. Sphyrapicus thyroideus (CASS.) [370.] 



"Williamson's Sapsncker. 



Hab. Western United States, from and inclusive of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. 



This singular representative of the genus Sphyrapicus, has a dis- 

 tribution extending from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to 

 the Pacific coast in Oregon and California. The male and female of 

 this species are so different in coloration that they were for a long time 

 considered separate species. Regions of coniferous trees seem to be 

 the favorite haunts of Williamson's Woodpecker. Dr. Merrill notes it 

 as not an uncommon resident in the vicinity of Fort Klamath, Oregon, 

 but shy and very suspicious. Two nests containing young were found 

 June 20 in large dead pines ; each were at a height of about sixty 

 feet, and inaccessible. Mr. Dennis Gale, who has given Capt. Bendire 

 his observations on the habits of this species in the mountains of Col- 

 orado, says that the birds are as often met with in moderately thick 

 woods as in more open clearings. The nesting sites are excavated in 

 the trunks of pine trees, at heights ranging from five to sixty feet or 

 more. 



Fresh eggs may be looked for, according to altitude, from May 

 20 to June 15. At Fort Klamath, Capt. Bendire took the first set of 

 eggs June 3, 1883. Five or six are laid. They are pure white, a trifle 



