228 Birds of Colorado 
on the sides and flanks; iris dark cherry-red, bill dusky plumbeous, 
legs plumbeous. Length 8-25; wing 5-0; tail 3-25; culmen 1-15; 
tarsus -90. 
The fomale has no yellow, the crown is shining black, slightly speckled 
with white. 
Distribution—The Rocky Mountain region from Montana, where 
it intergrades with P. americanus, south to the Santa Fé mountains of 
New Mexico. 
The Three-toed Woodpecker is a not uncommon resident in the 
mountainous portions of Colorado. It very seldom comes down below 
7,000 feet, and is chiefly a bird of the yellow-pine and spruce zones, 
from about 8,000 to 11,500 feet both in winter and summer. It has 
been, noticed throughout the mountains from Estes Park (Kellogg) 
to the Wet Mountains (Lowe) and La Plata co. (Morrison). Warren 
obtained a specimen on the Divide between the Sapinero and Currecanti 
creeks in Gunnison co. at 9,350 feet in October, which I have examined; 
he also took a nest containing two almost fledged young on July 
27th, 1911, at Buffalo Pass, altitude 10,300 feet ; and there is a pair 
taken by W. Ferril in the State collection at Denver, the male at 
Palmer Lake, 7,200 feet, the female at Cumbres in Conejos co., at 
10,000 feet. 
Habits.—Mrs. Stone found a nest with five young 
birds near Hancock, at about 10,000 feet, on July 10th, 
but gives no details. Breninger informed Bendire that 
he found a nest early in May at the low level of 6,500 
feet, west of Fort Collins. The site was located in a burnt 
spruce-stump and contained five eggs. It is most unusual 
to find either spruces or three-toed Woodpeckers at 
so low an elevation, and I cannot help thinking that 
there must be some mistake about this observation. 
No one else has written on the nidification of this species 
in Colorado, and it is remarkable that Gale does not 
mention the bird at all in his notebooks. 
Genus SPHYRAPICUS. 
Bill less stout than in Dryobates, hardly as long as the head, tho 
lateral ridges extending only about half way along its length; outer 
primary very small; tail feathers produced and attenuated ; toes four, 
the outer posterior (fourth) longer than the outer anterior (third) ; 
plumage with a good deal of yellow and red. 
