I 914 ] Griii in II : Mammals and Birds of the Colorado Valley 133 



were: the immediate vicinity of Needles, opposite The Needles, and 

 Lower Chemehuevis Valley. At the first two places several were seen 

 that were not also taken ; at the latter point but the one. taken March 

 11. was noted. This probably indicates the approximate date of 

 departure from the region, as we saw none thereafter. Willows were 

 the trees attacked by this woodpecker; but in one case a single large 

 mesquite. and only this one out of many in the vicinity, had been 

 selected for bleeding, and its main trunk and larger branches were 

 plentifully bored. I visited this tree many times during the space of 

 three days. March 2 to 4, opposite The Needles, and invariably found 

 a sapsucker working about the borings. I shot two of the birds at this 

 mesquite. and there was still one there the last time I visited the tree, 

 although I had never seen but one at a time there. 



The five specimens secured (nos. 12728-12732), all from the Cali- 

 fornia side, are characteristic of the subspecies. 



There is a skin in the Museum, no. -4312. taken by J. G. Cooper 

 at Fort Mohave. Februarv 20, 1861. 



Centurus uropygialis Baird 



Gila Woodpecker 



A common and characterstic resident the whole length of the region. 

 from Needles to the vicinity of Yuma. Found at every station on both 

 sides of the river. While regularly present in the willows and cotton- 

 woods of the river bottom, the species occurred also up the desert 

 washes a mile or more from the edge of the riparian strip. This was 

 the case on the Arizona side above Mellen, and on the California side 

 opposite Cibola, and on the Arizona side ten miles below Cibola. At 

 the latter two points Gila woodpeckers were feeding on mistletoe 

 berries in the ironwoods. At the last named place, an excavation 

 fifty-four inches above the ground in a dead broken-off branch of a 

 palo verde contained a single fresh egg, April 7. The nest cavity 

 appeared to be an old one, perhaps dug out the year previous. On 

 the California side twenty miles above Picacho a nest was found 

 twenty-five feet above the ground in a broken-topped living willow, 

 the core of which was rotten. There were three small young. April 15. 



The Gila woodpecker was one of the birds conspicuously associated 

 with the giant cactus. Where a scattering growth of this plant readied 

 nearly to the river on the Arizona side east of Ehrenberg, several of 

 these birds were encountered far out on the mesa and mam- of the 



