THE EED-NAPED SAPSUCKER. 89 



Mr. W. Gr. Smith informs me that this Sapsucker is a common summer resi- 

 dent in Estes Park, Colorado, breeding- from 7,000 feet up to nearly timber line, 

 invariably nesting in live quaking aspens, between June 1 and 15. 



The following is taken from an article of mine published in "The Auk" 

 (Vol. V, 1888, pp. 226 to 229), with some slight alterations made in the text: 



This race of Spliyrapicus varius I have met sparingly in various portions 

 of the Blue Mountains of Oregon, Washington Territory, and Idaho, and as 

 far west as the eastern slope of the Cascade Range in Southern Oregon, in the 

 Klamath Lake region, where, however, it was rare and replaced by Sphyrapicus 

 ruber, the two species overlapping each other, but not intergrading, and remain- 

 ing perfectly distinct. I first met with the nest and eggs of this bird in a small 

 aspen grove at the edge of a beautiful little park-like prairie, near the summit 

 of the Blue Mountains, in Grant County, Oregon, on June 12, 1877.^ I was 

 escortmg an army paymaster from Canyon City to Camp Harney, Oregon, 

 where I was then stationed. After a laborious climb to the top of the steep 

 mountain at the foot of which the little mining town of Canyon City nestled, 

 I stopped for some twenty minutes to rest the animals and to eat lunch. The 

 spot was a lovely one; the little grove at the edge of the heavy pine forest 

 contained perhaps half a dozen aspens that measured a foot or more through, 

 and a number of smaller ones. I had made myself comfortable under one of 

 the largest ones, which stood on the outer edge of the grove, watching the 

 horses enjoying the luxuriant grass, and was busily engaged in eating my 

 lunch, sharing it with several Oregon Jays, Perisoreus obscurus, which were 

 quite tame and absorbed my entire attention for some time. A Red-naped 

 Sapsucker was, in the meantime, flying about my tree, alighting on others in 

 the vicinity, and keeping up a constant chatter. I thought at first he was 

 jealous of the Jays, and paid no attention to him, till he flew onto the tree I was 

 sitting under, which brought out his mate. Their nesting site was directly over 

 my head, about 20 feet from the ground, and I might have noticed it sooner 

 by the fresh chips dropped by the birds in excavating the cavity, and which 

 were lying all around me, had I not been entirely absorbed in watching the 

 Jays, or 'Meat Birds,' as they are called there by the hunters and trappers. 

 It did not take long for one of my men to climb up and chop a sufficiently 

 large hole in the tree to insert the hand. The entrance to the excavation was 

 exceedingly small, not over IJ inches in diameter, about 8 inches deep, and 

 about 4 inches wide at the bottom. It contained three nearly fresh eggs, lying 

 partly embedded in a layer of fine chips. About a year afterwards, when 

 passing the same spot, June 2, 1878, I took another set of three fresh eggs of 

 this species out of a hole in another, somewhat smaller aspen tree in the same 

 grove. Although aspens of suitable size were to be found in several places in 

 the immediate vicinity of Camp Harney, Oregon, which is located at the foot 

 and on the southern slope of the Blue Mountains, at an altitude of aboiit 4,800 



' But I had previously found a nest with young in June, 1875, in the same locality, as well as several 

 in 1876. 



