BIRDS OF NEW YORK 1 47 



forests. I have heard of no specimen taken farther from the spruce belt 

 than Waterville, Oneida county. It therefore shares with the Spruce 

 grouse, the Canada jay and the Hudsonian chickadee the distinction of 

 being one of our perfectly nonmigratory species. Within the spruce and 

 balsam forests it is quite uniformly distributed, but is less common than the 

 Black-backed woodpecker, evidently about one-half as common as that 

 species. It inhabits both the spruce swamps and the mountain sides. 

 While making the bird survey of the Mt Marcy district we found this 

 species breeding on the slopes of Marcy just above Skylight camp, an 

 altitude of 4000 feet, and in the swamp at the Upper Ausable lake at an 

 altitude of 2000 feet. In our experience the birds are even less noisy than 

 the black-backed species. We could scarcely distinguish them from that 

 species by their call, but Turner (Bendire's Life Histories) mentions only 

 a squealing note like the Sapsucker's. At that season of the year (July i) 

 the old birds were either feeding the young in the nest or leading them from 

 tree to tree. They confined their attention almost entirely to tamarack,, 

 spruce and fir trees and evidently feed principally, if not entirely, upon 

 the beetles and their larvae found beneath the dead bark. The nests 

 which we found were situated in tamaracks and spruces from 25 to 40 feet 

 from the ground and could not be distinguished from nesting holes of the 

 black-backed woodpeckers except that on careful measurement they were 

 about one-fourth of an inch less in diameter. From the experience of 

 Doctor Merriam, their nests are found in spruce, tamarack, pine, balsam 

 and cedar in order of preference, about 6 or 7 feet above the water line. 

 In the swamps about Sixth and Seventh lakes in Hamilton county, he 

 found them mating on the i8th of May at Woodhull, Oneida county, but 

 found the 2nd of June too early for eggs at Sixth lake. In the Smithsonian 

 collection I find several sets of eggs taken at Moose river and Sixth lake 

 from the 4th to the loth of June. Evidently this is the usual nesting time 

 in the Adirondacks. The eggs are 4 in number, slightly smaller than those- 

 of the black-backed woodpecker, averaging .92 by .70 inches in dimensions. 



