236 Birds of Colorado 
breast and belly pink, slightly pencilled with grey ; under tail-coverts 
bronzy like the back ; iris brown, bill blackish, legs dusky slate. Length 
9-5; wing 6-6; tail 3-9; culmen 1-05; tarsus 1-0. 
The female is like the male, perhaps a little smaller. The young bird 
is at first without lustre or crimson, the collar is absent, and the 
lower-parts are dull brown; the iridescence and crimson are gradually 
acquired. 
Distribution.— Western North America from southern, British Columbia 
and Alberta to western Texas and southern California; east to the 
Black Hills of South Dakota. 
Lewis’ Woodpecker is a common summer bird in Colorado, breeding 
chiefly along the eastern foothills and somewhat less commonly in 
the mountains up to about 9,000 feet. Above this level it occurs up 
to 10,000 feet in the Wet Mountains (Lowe) and near Fort Garland 
(Brunner), and even to 12,000 feet in La Plata co. (Morrison), but has 
not been found nesting. Cooke classes it as a resident, but it is certainly 
not a common bird in winter; Aiken tells me he has never met with it 
in this season. It does occasionally remain, however, as there is an 
example in the Colorado College Museum, killed January 13th, 1907, 
near Sedalia, by G. Flower. Breeding records are: Loveland 
(W. G. Smith apud Bendire), Boulder co. (Gale), near Colorado Springs 
and Buena Vista (Keyser), Wet Mountains to 8,000 feet (Lowe), Rouse 
Junction (Christie apud Cooke), Mesa co. up to 6,500 feet (Rockwell), 
La Plata co. to 9,000 feet (Morrison). 
Most of the birds arrive from the south about the middle of May ; 
El Paso co., May 6th (Aiken), Pueblo, May 13th (Beckham). 
Habits.—At first sight this bird is more like a Grackle 
than a Woodpecker, owing to its iridescent colouring ; 
and its ways rather confirm this. It is somewhat silent 
and very shy. It frequently perches on boughs like 
other birds, and it seldom “drums” or searches trunks 
of trees for insects. 
It catches its prey, which consists chiefly of grass- 
hoppers and other large insects, on the wing, and often 
sits on a bare bough high up to get a good view around. 
Besides insects, it feeds on berries and seeds; it has 
been accused of causing considerable damage in cherry 
orchards. In the late fall it was observed by S. French, 
storing up acorns for future use in holes in cotton- 
wood and other trees; some of these were small 
