158 



WILD ANIMALS OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK. 



Order PICI: Woodpeckers, etc. 



Family PICID^: Woodpeckers. 



IvocivY MoTJXTAix Hairt "Woodpecker : Btyobates villosus monti- 

 cola. — The Eocky Mountain form of the black and white hairy wood- 

 jiecker with the red patcli at the back of its crown, one of tlie nicsi: 

 useful destroj^ers of wood borers, was reported by Mr. H. C. Bryant, 

 of California, from Iceberg Lake, July 27, and McDonald Creek, 

 July 31, 1917, and the following April Mr. Bailey noted it at intervals 

 from Lake McDonald to the Kintla Lakes. In 1895 several were 

 noted and one taken ]>y Messrs. Bailej^ and Howell at St. Mary Lake. 

 Batchelder "Woodpecker : Dvyohates fubescens homorus. — The 

 smidl familiar note of this downy Avoodpecker may often be heard 



when the little black and white form is 

 hidden in the shadows of the forest. It 

 was seen at St. Mary chalet, Bellj' Eiver, 

 and Lake McDonald, and Mr. Stevenson 

 records it from Swiftcurrent Creek. 



Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker: 

 Plcoides arcticus. — A woodpecker recog- 

 nized by his yellow crown patch as a three- 

 toed, and hy his solid black back as an 

 Arctic three-toed, was seen in the woods 

 near Lake Josephine. In June, 1895, 

 Messrs. Bailey and Howell reported the 

 birds as quite common on the west slope, 

 mostly in the burnt timber, and in the 

 winter of 1899-1900 Mr. Higginson found 

 them " in great abundance " around Stan- 

 ton Lake, near the western border of the park, " on the ridges and 

 in the river bottoms." In April, 1918, Mr. Bailey saw them in many 

 of the old burns in the valley of the North Fork of the Flathead, 

 heaps of bark scales often marking the base of some dead tamarack 

 where they had been feeding. 



As the great Ijulk of the food of the three-toed woodpeckers con- 

 sists of the lar\'a» of wood borers, they rank among the most im- 

 portant conservators of the coniferous forests. 



Alaska Tiiree-toed Woodpecker : Picotdes americanus fasciafus. — 

 By the trail near Baring Falls, at Going-to-the-Sun Camp, hearing a 

 soft tapping on the side of a spruce stub I discovered a woodpecker 

 with the 3'ellow patch above his bill that names him a three-toed, and 

 a white stripe down his back, barred with black, which gives him the 

 name of " ladder-back." 



From BioloEical Survey. 



Fig. G1. — Arctic three-toed 



woodpecker. 



