112 LIFE HISTOEIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



a set of ten eggs of the Red-head, varying in size from ordinary down to that 

 of the Song Sparrow. Incubation varied from fresh in the smallest egg to 

 advanced in the larger; the nest was in the end of a rotten limb of a large 

 willow, about 20 feet from the ground. Locality, Crow Creek, Weld County, 

 Colorado, May, 1887. ' Like the eggs of all our Woodpeckers, they are pure 

 china- white in color; the shell is fine grained and rather glossy, and when fresh 

 they are quite translucent; they are mostly short ovate in shape, and show but 

 little variation in this respect. 



The average measurement of sixty eggs in the United States National 

 Museum collection is 25.12 by 19.25 millimetres, or about 0.99 by 0.76 inch. 

 The largest egg of the series meastu-es 26.92 by 20.32 millimetres, or 1.06 by 

 0.80 inches; the smallest, 22.90 by 18.03 millimetres, or 0.90 by 0.71 inch. 



The type specimen, No. 23423 (not figured), from a set of five eggs, was 

 taken by Mr. C. W. Richmond, near Washington, D. C, June 23, 1885. 



40. Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi Ridgway. 



CALIFORNIA^ WOODPECKER. 



Melanetyes formicivorus bairdi Ridgway, Bulletin No. 21, U. S. National Museum, 1881, 

 34, 85. 



(B 95, C 310, R 377, C 451, U 407.) 



Geographical range: Northern and western Mexico, northern Lower California, 

 and adjacent portions of the United States, from western Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, 

 north through California into western Oregon to about latitude 44°; east to the western 

 slopes of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains in California and Oregon. Sporadic- 

 ally on the eastern slopes of the Cascades in Lake and Klamath counties, Oregon. 



In suitable localities, the Californian Woodpecker is one of the most 

 abundant and familiar species along our southern border, and it is also rather 

 common in many portions of California and western Oregon. Being essentially 

 a bird of the oak belt, this handsome Woodpecker need only be looked for 

 where these trees are abundant. In the northern portions of California and in 

 southwestern Oregon it is rarely met with at a greater altitude than 4,500 feet, 

 but in Arizona, New Mexico, and in northern Lower California it is often found 

 at considerable distances above this point. In California it reaches the eastern 

 limits of its range on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevadas, and in Oregon 

 it rarely crosses over to the eastern slopes of the Cascades. As far as I have 

 been able to ascertain, it reaches the northern limits of its range in Oregon, and 

 it appears to be rare or entirely absent in the northwestern parts of this 

 State. I have been unable to find a single reliable record of its occurrence in 

 Washington, and do not believe that it has ever been met with so far north. It 

 attains the eastern limit of its range, as far as known, in the Santa Fe Moun- 

 tains, in northern New Mexico, where Mr. H. W. Henshaw secured several 

 specimens, and it is also common in the Guadalupe and Davis Mountains, and 



1 The Oologist, vol. 5, March, 1888,. p. 44. 



