BIRDS. 



159 



With quick, masterful blows, now from the left, now from the 

 light, sometimes steadying himself with a strong foot, he would send 

 the bark scales flying. But when the hole of the borer was uncovered, 

 after digging straight down, he would carefully pull out the delec- 

 table larva. He paid little heed to me, and when a guide with goat- 

 skin chaparrajoes rode rapidly by down the trail he merely sidled 

 around to the back of the tree trunk. 



A number of other Alaska three-toes were seen during the summer, 

 notably on the Swiftcurrent, near Many Glaciers, at (jlenn Lake, on 

 the Kootenai Trail, and at Lake McDonald. On the Swiftcurrent Pass 

 Trail one flew from an old bum, and another, crossing the trail ahead 

 of us, became so absorbed in picking on an old log that he let us ride 

 up within a few feet of him. On the Piegan Pass Trail near Many 

 Glaciers in a windfall where uprooted trees and twisted-off trunks 

 made a confused tangle, letting in the light, between the trees cob- 

 web bridges caught the sun, and the sunlit spaces below were filled 

 with beds of fresh green ferns, hellebore, and bright yellow arnicas. 

 Here a family of j'oung three-toes were 

 living, in early July. Short-billed and 

 short-tailed, the little fellows called in 

 monotonous iteration, as if to keep their 

 parents informed of their whereabouts, 

 and at intervals announced with sudden 

 emphasis the arrival of a meal. At Lake 

 McDonald, the last of August, an old 

 Picoides was seen with its young one on 

 an old tamarack, the young one still call- 

 ing in infantile tones. 



Eed->^aped Sapsuckee: S phyrapieus 

 varius nuchalis. — The red-naped sap- 

 sucker — whose red crown and nuchal patch are separated by a 

 black area and whose chest is black between the red throat and 

 pale lemon-yellow belly — is said by Mr. Bryant to nest in lodgepole 

 pines. The work of sapsuckers — bands of small holes girdling the 

 trees — was seen in a number of places. 



Williamson Sapsucker: Sphyrajncus thyroideus natalke. — Like 

 other sapsuckers, the Williamson, which is notable for the strikingly 

 different plumage of the sexes — the female brown barred and the 

 male black, red, white, and yellow — is found in the lower levels of 

 the park. It was reported by Mr. H. C. Bryant, of California, from 

 Lake Ellen Wilson, July 21 ; Reynolds Creek, July 23 ; and McDonald 

 Creek, July 3L 



Northern Pileated Woodpecker : Fhlaotomus pnleatus picinus. — • 

 Laro-est and most notable of all the woodpeckers of the North, the 



From Biological Survey. 



Fig. 62. — Northern 

 woodpecker. 



pileated 



