334 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YOSEMITE 



lodgepole pines of the central Sierra Nevada cannot be considered as of 

 great economic importance, for these trees are there used little if at all 

 for lumber or for any other commercial purpose. 



Several points of importance in regard to the economic bearing of 

 sapsuckers in California remain to be worked out satisfactorily. A prime 

 need is definite knowledge as to the real nature of their food — whether 

 sap, inner bark, growing wood, or insects ; and if all of these, the propor- 

 tion of each in the diet for the entire year. 



Several instances of the nesting of Williamson Sapsuckers came to our 

 attention. At Mono Meadow on June 20, 1915, a nest was located 16 feet 

 up in a partly dead lodgepole pine. The tapping of the bole of the tree 

 brought forth a chorus of cries from the young birds within. Two days 

 later, at Peregoy Meadow, an adult was seen carrying ants in its bill, 

 probably on the way to feed its brood. At Tuolumne Meadows on July 13, 

 1915, another nest was discovered about 20 feet above the ground in a 

 dead lodgepole pine. As the observer stood watching the site the female 

 sapsucker swooped past him and alighted on the trunk of the tree above 

 the nest hole. Then she backed down and clung in front of the hole. The 

 notes of the young increased in volume as the mother bird put her bill, 

 laden with ants, through the entrance. It would seem that wood ants are 

 important as an article of diet for the young, at least while they are in 

 the nest. The marked trait of adults of this species, to go directly to the 

 nest hole when feeding the young and not to approach indirectly, as do 

 so many birds, makes the discovery of nests relatively easy. 



Northern Pileated Woodpecker. Phloeotomus pileatus abieticola (Bangs) 



Field characters. — Much the largest of our woodpeckers (length over 17 inches). 

 Body plumage black; a brilliant red crest on head (fig. 46); a large white area on 

 forward part of under surface of wing; a smaller spot of white on middle of outer 

 surface of wing. Flies usually in direct course, sometimes in great undulations, with 

 rather slow and regular wing beats. Voice: A loud but low-pitched note, JcuJc, uttered 

 a varying number of times in rather slow and irregular succession. 



Occurrence. — Common resident in Transition Zone and lower part of Canadian Zone 

 on west slope of Sierra Nevada. Observed near Feliciana Mountain and 6 miles east 

 of Coulterville, and thence eastward to Mono Meadow (7300 feet altitude), and to 

 Little Yosemite Valley at 6200 feet. Seen in Yosemite Valley at all seasons of the 

 year. Lives chiefly in white fir woods. 



The Northern Pileated Woodpecker has been aptly called Cock-of-the- 

 woods, for it is by far the largest woodpecker within our region. It is 

 exceeded in size and in loudness of voice by but few of all the forest birds. 

 In general, the range of this species closely duplicates that of the fir trees, 

 in recognition of which fact, it was called ahicticola (fir-inhabiting). In 

 the Yosemite region the bird is found chiefly in the belt of forest char- 

 acterized by the presence of the white fir {Ahics concolor). 



