CABANIS'S WOODPECKER. 53 



20. Dryobates villosus hyloscopus (Cabanis). 



i lABANIS'S WOODPECKER. 



Dryobates hyloscopus Cabanis and Heine, Museum Heineannm, IV. ii, 180:;. 69. 

 [Dryobates villosus) hyloscopus Brewster, Auk, V, July, 1888, 252 i in text). 

 (B 75, part; C 298a, part; II 3606, part; C 439, part ; D 393d. 



GEOGRAPHICAL range: Western North America; north to Montana, Idaho, and 

 Washington, excepting the coast regions; east to tlie eastern slopes of the IJocky Moun- 

 tains and adjacent ranges; south through California. Arizona, and New Mexico to northern 

 Mexico and Lower California. 



Cabanis's Woodpecker is generally intermediate in size between Dryobates 

 villosus and Dryobates villosus leucomelas, and is distinguishable from the former 

 by its plain black or much less spotted wing coverts and tertials, and from Dryo- 

 bates villosus harrisii by its lighter-colored under parts and somewhat smaller 

 size. I have recently had an opportunity t<> examine several skins of this sub- 

 species, taken in the vicinity of Fort Sherman, Idaho, by Dr. James C. Merrill, 

 United States Army, which are almost as large as Dryobates villosus leucomelas and 

 fully as large as Dryobates villosus harrisii. It is practically a resident wherever 

 found, and its breeding- range is coextensive with its geographical distribution. 

 In winter it is often met with in the valleys adjacent to mountain ranges, to 

 which it retires in summer to breed; but these vertical migrations, if they may 

 be called so, are never very extended. 



Cabanis's Woodpecker does not appear to be found north of our border, 

 and has not as yet been reported from any point in the Dominion of Canada, 

 nor does it reach any great distance beyond the eastern slopes of the Rocky 

 Mountains and adjacent ranges. Dr. Gr. S. Agersborg gives it as a common 

 resident of southeastern South Dakota, but I doubt if perfectly typical speci- 

 mens of this race are found east of the Black Hills in this State. It inhabits all 

 the mountain regions of the interior up to altitudes of 10,000 feet, and occurs 

 also south of our border in northern Mexico. In southern Arizona it does not 

 appear to breed in the lower valleys, but I have shot several near Tucson in 

 winter, and it merely retires to the neighboring mountains here, where it finds a 

 suitable summer climate during the season of reproduction. Mr. A. W. Anthony 

 observed it in the San Pedro Martir Mountains, Lower California, at altitudes 

 from 7,000 to 10,000 feet. Mr. Denis Gale found it breeding in Boulder County, 

 Colorado, on May 28, 1886, in a live aspen tree, at an altitude of about 8,500 

 feet. The nest contained five eggs, in which incubation wa s somewhat advanced. 

 Mr. William Gr. Smith also reports it as common in Colorado, coming down into 

 the valleys in winter. He says it is the earliest of the Woodpeckers to breed, that 

 it commences nesting in the latter part of April, and usually excavates its holes 

 in old dead pines, frequently at a considerable distance from the ground, and 

 that he has seen full-grown young by June 1. 



In California Cabanis' Woodpecker is common in the mountains, but in 

 the lowlands in the southern parts of this State Mr. F. Stephens considers it a 



