BIRDS OF THE PAPAGO SAGUARO NATIONAL MONUMENT. 45 



average distance from the ground of a number of nests was 12 feet, and they 

 ranged from 7 to 20 feet. 



Fighting and cooing begins about the 1st of February, but the earliest nesting 

 date I have recorded was April 11, when fresh eggs were found. The latest 

 date was September 25, when a nest containing eggs slightly incubated was 

 found. At least two, and possibly three, broods are raised during the year. 

 The past season I noted four cases where two broods were raised in the same 

 nest, and two cases where a last year's nest was relined and used. Two nests 

 found were built on top of old cactus wrens' dwellings. 



Though so tame and accustomed to human presence, when caught the doves 

 are violent in their attempts to escape. I trapped two at different times to 

 have a friend take their photograph. I placed them in a cage to await the 

 coming of the camera man, but they used the same jerky motions to escape that 

 they do in flying, and 'went at it with the same vim that they do in fighting. 

 They were fast injuring their heads, and I released them after a few minutes. 1 



MEARNS GILDED FLICKER. 

 Colaptcs chrysoides mearnsi Ridgway. 



Recognition marks. A large woodpecker; length about llf inches. 

 Eump white, and under surfaces of wings and tail yellow, conspicu- 

 ous in the flying bird. The gilded flicker will probably be recog- 

 nized at sight by anyone at all familiar with birds, either in the East 

 or the West, for it has the unmistakable flicker characteristics of voice, 

 flight, and markings. From the red-shafted flicker, which occurs 

 in the same region in winter, it is readily distinguished by the pos- 

 session of yellow, instead of red, shafts of wing and tail feathers. 

 From the eastern yellow-shafted flicker the gilded flicker may be 

 distinguished by its red "mustache " (in the male bird), and by the 

 absence in either sex of the red crescent at the back of the head. 



Occurrence. So closely is the gilded flicker restricted to the 

 vicinity of the giant cactus that it is useless to look for the species 

 save in the neighborhood of that plant. It is true that an occasional 

 flicker builds its nest elsewhere than in the trunk of the cactus, but 

 in such case it will be a tree growing in a giant cactus region. 



The species is resident the year through wherever it occurs, but in 

 the winter it is joined by the larger red-shafted flicker. The latter 

 species is restricted to the higher mountains during the summer. 



The gilded flicker was seen in fair numbers on the Papago Saguaro 

 Monument. Two nests placed high in towering saguaros were found 

 there on May 30, both containing noisy young assiduously fed by their 

 parents. About Roosevelt Lake the species was seen daily, though not 

 in any large numbers. 



Condor, XIII, 1911, pp. 55-56. 



