rt'OODPECKEBS 341 



form an unimportant element in the bird's food. On the contrary, like 

 the other woodpeckers, the California AVoodpecker does a great amount 

 of bark foraging, though it does show a decided aversion to pitchy conifers. 



When alighting on a tree trunk, these birds assume a vertical posture, 

 head out, tail appressed to the bark. They move up by a hitching process 

 ■ — head in, tail out ; up ; tail in, head out. If a bird perches on a small 

 horizontal branch, his position is more likely to be diagonal than directly 

 crosswise. If a bird alights on the square top of a fence post, he seems 

 ill at ease and soon backs over the edge into a more woodpecker-like posture. 



Nest holes about 30 feet above the ground were noted in each of two 

 long-dead and barkless yelloAv pine stubs standing at the foot of the valley 

 wall back of Yosemite Falls Camp. Individual birds used these for roost- 

 ing places at night in December, 1914, only one bird occupying each hole. 

 Near Pleasant Valley, May 24, 1915, a nest hole 10 feet above the ground 

 in the trunk of a blue oak held squealing young. 



The more intensive occupancy of the Yosemite Valley during recent 

 years and the operations of the government employees in promptly remov- 

 ing dead but standing trees to be cut up for wood has operated to the 

 detriment of the woodpeckers which seek such trees for nesting holes. So 

 it was no surprise, in May, 1919, to find a number of telephone or electric 

 power poles near Redwood Lane which had been prospected for nesting 

 sites by woodpeckers — the California, to judge from the size of hole and 

 general location. Dearth of suitable natural sites had forced the birds 

 to at least investigate these newly established dead-tree substitutes. With 

 no substitutes at all available, the only result to be logically looked for, 

 as a result of man's interference with the natural order of affairs, would 

 be the disappearance of woodpeckers. The question arises here as to the 

 justification of the administration in so altering natural conditions in 

 National Parks as to threaten the j)ersistenee there of any of its native 

 denizens. 



Lewis Woodpecker. Asyndesmus lewisi Riley 



Field characters. — Size little larger than robin ; wings long. Back and head black- 

 appearing; belly pale red; breast and collar around neck hoary white. (See pi. 5a.) 

 No white on wings, tail or rump. Flight nearly direct, with continuously beating wings. 



Occurrence. — Irregular, both seasonally and zonally. Stations and dates of record 

 are: Snelling, May 26, 1915; Lagrange, December 15, 1915; Pleasant Valley, May 22 

 and 24, and December 4, 1915; Goffs, December 12, 1914; above Ten Lakes, October 11, 

 1915; Walker Lake, May 9 and June 24, 1916; near Williams Butte, September 23, 

 1915; and Mono Mills, June 8, 1916. Eeeorded in Yosemite Valley, September 22, 1917 

 (Mailliard, 1918, p. 18) and September 8 to 13 and 22, 1920 (C. W. Michael, MS). 

 Frequents scattered timber. 



The Lewis Woodpecker is a wanderer, and is likely to be seen sometime 

 or another at almost any place in the Yosemite section. It seems to have 



