BIEDS OF NOKTHERN CANADA 375 



cord the finding, on 30th May, 1863, of a nest containing 

 three perfectly fresh eggs — a mere hole in a dry spruce sev- 

 eral feet from the ground. A female bird answering to the 

 given description was shot in its vicinity. It may, however, 

 have been an example of P. americaniis." 



Bendire states that " there are several specimens in the 

 National Museum collection, from Moose Factory, James 

 Bay, and others from Forts Rae and Providence, on Great 

 Slave Lake; from Fort Chipewyan, on Lake Athabasca, and 

 one from Fort Reliance, Upper Yukon, latitude 64° north. 

 Mr. R. MacFarlane found it nesting at Fort Providence, 

 latitude 61° north. It is essentially a bird of the pine, 

 spruce, fir, and tamarack forests, and is rarely seen in other 

 localities, and probably breeds wherever found. Its flight is 

 swift, generally undulating, and is often protracted for con- 

 siderable distances. The food of this woodpecker seems to 

 consist almost entirely of tree-boring insects and their larvae, 

 mainly Buprestidce and Cerambycidw. Both sexes assist in 

 nidification. Only one brood is raised in a season. The 

 eggs are generally four in number. These are mostly ovate 

 in shape. The shell is fine grained and only moderately 

 glossy, and, like the eggs of all woodpeckers, pure white in 

 colour." There are nine skins, but no eggs, of this wood- 

 pecker in the Museum at Ottawa ! 



401. Ameeican Theee-toed Woodpeckbe — Picoides am- 

 ericanvs Brehm. 



On 15th May, 1885, a nest of this woodpecker was found 

 in a cavity of a tree not far from Fort Providence, contain- 

 ing four fresh eggs. The parent was shot. Both bird and 

 eggs were forwarded to Dr. Bell. At page 79 of Vol. II. 

 of his " Bird Life Histories," Bendire writes : " During a 

 careful examination of the series of specimens of this bird 

 and its two recognized sub-species, I found several skins col- 

 lected by Mr. R. MacFarlane, in the vicinity of Fort Ander- 

 son, in latitude 68° 30' north, North-West Territory, which 



