NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 271 



aspen trees. Dr. James C. Merrill found a nest of this bird in a cavity of a dead 

 young Cottonwood, in Montana, June 12. The height of the hole from the ground 

 was twenty-five feet, ana near the top of the same tree were three similar holes, prob- 

 ably used by the same birds in previous years. Mr. Dennis Gale, an enthusiastic 

 naturalist, has given Major Bendire the results of his observations on the nesting of 

 this Woodpecker in the mountains of Colorado. According to him, its nesting sites 

 are invariably in living aspen trees, along the gulches and hillsides, and the birds 

 are seldom found above an altitude of 9000 or much below 8000 feet. In excavating 

 the cavity the female bird does the work from beginning to end, and completes it in 

 from six to ten days. The height of the nesting place from the ground varies from 

 five to thirty feet. The eggs are from three to six in number, usually four or five. 

 Fresh eggs may be found in Colorado from June 1 to 15, and should the first set be 

 taken, a second may generally be found in from ten to fifteen days later; and as a 

 rule, the second nesting-site will not be a great distance from the first one. Several 

 nests of this species may be found within a short distance of one another in the same 

 aspen grove. The cavities are roomy and gourd-shaped. Bendire gives the measure- 

 ments of two sets of four eggs each, taken by Mr. Gale. The first set, collected June, 

 1884, measures as follows: .91x.67, .90x.68, .89x.68, .88x.64; second set taken June 1, 

 1887, .90X.69, .90x.69, .90x.68, .89x.65. A set of three eggs taken by himself in the 

 Blue Mountains, Grant county, Oregon, exhibit the following sizes: .90x.65, 90x.64, 

 .88X.66. The average measurement is given as .88x.66. The eggs are pure white 

 after blowing, moderately glossy or lustrous, and generally ovate in shape.* The set 

 of five taken by Dr. Merrill in Montana measure .91x.72, .90x.73, .93x.71, .93x.73, 

 .91X.73, respectively. 



403. RED-BREASTED SAPSTTCKER. Sphyrapicus ruber (Gmel.) Geog. 



Dist. — Pacific coast region, from California northward into Alaska. 



This species is confined to the Pacific coast region, occuring as far east as the 

 eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains la Central and Northern California; 

 in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington, thence northward through 

 British Columbia into Alaska: A handsome bird, with the whole head, neck and 

 breast carmine-red in both sexes. Major- Bendire states that this bird is an 

 abundant summer resident of the aspen groves on the mountains in the southwestern 

 portion of Oregon — the region about Fort Klamath, etc. According to his observa- 

 tions its nesting is very similar to 8. v. uuchalis — breeding in healthy live aspen 

 trees, making a gourd-shaped nest cavity from six to ten inches deep, four or five 

 inches wide at the bottom and three inches near the top. It is situated from fifteen 

 to twenty-five feet from the ground, and usually excavated below the first limb of 

 the tree. A sure sign of a nest was the chips scattered about the base of the tree. 

 Five or six eggs are laid, and fresh eggs may be looked for in the neighborhood of 

 Port Klamath from May 20 to June 5. Major Bendire took the first set of eggs 

 May 23, 1883, and he has taken nearly fresh eggs as late as June 13. When blown 

 the eggs are a pure delicate white, the shell showing a moderate amount of lustre. 

 There is considerable variation in their shape, running through all the different 

 ovates to an elongate-ovate. The average measurements of sixty specimens are 

 .94X.68; the largest egg 1.00x.70; the smallest .86x.78. A set of five eggs is in Mr. 

 Norris's collection, taken with the female bird, near Salem, Oregon, April 13, 1888, 

 from a cavity in a cottonwood, twenty-five feet from the ground. They measure' 

 l.OOx.73, .91X.71, .94X.70, .90x71, .90x71. 



* See Notes on the Habits, Nests, and Eggs 9t the Genus Sphyrapicus. By Major 

 Charles E. Bendire: In The Auk, V, pp. 225-240. 



