242 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 10 



Dos Palmos, June 1, in a dead yucca stalk, about five feet from 

 the ground. An occupied nest was discovered in Palm Canon, 

 at about 3000 feet, on June 14, placed in a dry last year's yucca 

 stalk about ten feet high and four and a half inches in diameter 

 at the base. The entrance was forty-five inches above the 

 ground, the total depth of nest cavity, twelve and three-quarters 

 inches, and the diameter of the entrance one and one-half inches. 

 It contained three small young, scantily covered with partly 

 unsheathed feathers. 



Along the railroad near Cabezon many telegraph poles were 

 drilled into by these woodpeckers. Prom the number of perfora- 

 tions observed in a short distance the damage from this source 

 must be of considerable magnitude, as the poles used here are so 

 small as to be materially weakened by a cavity of the size of a 

 woodpecker hole. 



The species was rather unexpectedly encountered at Valle- 

 vista. at the Pacific base of the mountains. About six or seven 

 of the birds were seen here between August 29 and September 

 5. all in the chaparral-covered washes and on the mesa near the 

 foot of the hills. The surroundings are essentially desert-like, 

 but it is doubtful if such conditions prevail in any continuous 

 strip connecting this area with the desert proper east of the 

 mountains. Prom the season at which these woodpeckers were 

 observed here, they might be assumed to be wandering indiv- 

 iduals, straying at random; but in this connection, and arguing 

 ;rj;iinst this assumption, it is interesting to note that certain other 

 desert forms, a chipmunk {Ammospermophilus leucurus) and 

 a lizard (Callisaurus ventralis), both certainly non-migratory, 

 were also taken at this point (see page 326). 



In all. twenty specimens of this woodpecker were collected, 

 as follows: Cabezon, nine ( nos. 1702-1710), Snow Creek, five 

 (nos. 2062-2064, 2152, 2153), Palm Canon, three (nos. 3084, 

 3085, 15473), and Vallevista, three (nos. 3113-3115). Ten are 

 adults, nine juvenals, and one an immature in first winter 

 plumage. Very small young ones were taken from a nest on 

 June 14, as mentioned above, but other juvenals were shot, while 

 flying about, and, except on close .scrutiny, indistinguishable from 

 adults, as early as May 15. at Cabezon, and May 27 at Snow 

 Creek. 



