THE OOLOGIST 



69 



Some Colorado Woodpecker and Sap- 

 sucker Notes. 



The writer spent four weeks, from 

 June 7th to July 4th, 1904, collecting 

 in northern Colorado around Estes 

 and Moraine, or Little Elk, Parks, and 

 the following notes on the Woodpeck- 

 ers and Sapsuckers found breeding 

 there, are practically transcripts from 

 his field notes. The collecting was 

 done at an altitude varying from eight 

 to ten thousand feet, along the moun- 

 tain sides and on the moraines. 



393d. Dryobates villosus hylosco- 

 pus. Cabanis's Woodpecker. — Four 

 nests of Cabanis's Woodpecker were 

 found, all containing young. Three 

 were in holes in pines, and one in a 

 hole in a dead aspen. One was at an 

 altitude of eighty-one hundred, two 

 about eighty-five hundred, and the 

 fourth on the shores of Bierstadt 

 Lake, approximately nine thousand 

 feet. The birds are very like the 

 Hairy Woodpecker in appearance, and 

 are very noisy when the nesting site 

 is approached . They were not uncom- 

 mon between eight and nine thousand 

 feet. As all nests found contained 

 young, they must begin laying consid- 

 erably earlier than the Sapsuckers, 

 probably about May 20. 



401 b. Picoides americanus dorsa- 

 lis. Alpine Three-toed Woodpecker. — 

 Our first Alpine Three-toed Woodpeck- 

 er was seen at an altitude of about 

 nine thousand feet, on the west side of 

 a little creek that we Itnew by the 

 name of Mill Creek, which ran by a 

 small lumber mill and emptied into 

 Fall River. It was a rushing, roaring 

 little torrent of ice water from the 

 melting snowbanks, at timber line, 

 scarcely a mile away. Instead of our 

 usual bed of boughs, on the ground, 

 with a tarpaulin pulled over us, we 

 slept at the mill shack the night be- 



fore, and made an early start on that 

 morning, and were but just begun 

 when we took our first set of Audu- 

 bon's Hermit Thrush, but the elation 

 of that find had left us, as it was now 

 several hours later, and we had taken 

 nothing else. The sight of dorsal is 

 woke us up. It was a male and we fol- 

 lowed him up and down over rocks 

 and fallen timber, never once losing 

 sight of him for more than an hour, 

 only to lose him at the end of that 

 time by his flying "up the creek." 

 We followed after, in the forlorn hope 

 that he had gone in the direction of 

 his nest, until we reached almost to 

 timber line. The stream was narrow 

 up there, and we were able to cross 

 on a fallen tree, and came down on 

 the east side of the creek. No further 

 sight was had of our bird until we 

 reached a point just about opposite to 

 where we first saw him, and then just 

 as we were passing an aspen stub we 

 saw a head sticking out of a hole. The 

 head was instantly withdrawn, before 

 wc could see whether it had a red 

 patch on top or throat, distinguishing 

 mark of Red-naped Sapsucker. The 

 hole was in an aspen stub, nine feet 

 from the ground and about a foot or 

 eighteen inches from the top, and just 

 before the guide reached the hole the 

 bird flew out. It had no red patch — 

 nor yellow either, for that matter, — • 

 but was black and white, so we were 

 not yet sure that it was not a female 

 Cabanis's Woodpecker. I kept the 

 bird in sight while the guide sawed 

 out a section from the stub to see if 

 the set was complete or whether there 

 were young in nest, and upon his 

 shout of "four eggs," I collected the 

 female, which in hand at once proved 

 to be a Three-toed, and upon complete 

 examination, dorosalis. 



After carefully packing the eggs, we 

 chopped down the stub and saved a 



