76 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



spruce, and tamarack trees, and varied from 4 to 15 feet above the water. A 

 fortnight later (June 15) I found a nest of Picoides arcticus, containing young 

 (apparently about a week old), at West Pond, near Big Moose Lake. It was in 

 a tamarack tree and about 10 feet above the ground. A last year's nest in an 

 adjacent tamarack was occupied by a family of flying squirrels." 



I first met with the Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker on the summit of the 

 Blue Mountains, near Soda Springs, Grrant County, Oregon, in August, 1876, at 

 an altitude of about 5,500 feet, where it was rare, and again near Fort Klamath, 

 during the year 1 882-83. There they were fairly common in winter, frequenting 

 the more open pine forests in the mountain valleys, but were rarely seen by me 

 in summer, and I believe they mostly retired to an extensive burnt tract, some 

 30 miles to the northeast of the post, near the head waters of the Deschutes 

 River, to breed. Like the Hairy Woodpecker, they are persistent drummers, 

 rattling away for minutes at a time on some dead limb, and are especially active 

 during the mating season, in April. I have located more than one specimen by 

 traveling in the direction of the sound when it was fully half a mile away. On 

 May 10, 1883, while en route from Fort Klamath to Linkville, Oregon, and 

 only a few miles from the latter place, just where the pine timber ended and 

 the sagebrush commenced, I found a male busily at work on a pine stump, 

 only about 2 J feet high and about 18 inches in diameter, standing within a few 

 feet of the road, and close to a charcoal burner's camp, in quite an open and 

 exposed situation, nearly all the timber in the vicinity having been cut down. 

 The stump was solid, full of pitch, and showed no signs of decay; the entrance 

 hole was about IJ inches in diameter and 8 inches from the top. The cavity, 

 when first examined, was only about 2 inches deep, and on my return, two days 

 later, it had reached a depth of 4 inches; the female v/as then at work. To 

 make sure of a full set of eggs, I waited until the 25th. The cavity then was 

 found to be 18 inches deep, and was gradually enlarged toward the bottom. The 

 four eggs it contained had been incubated about four days. The female was on 

 the nest, and uttered a hissing sound as she left it, and might easily have been 

 caught, as she remained in the hole until the stump was struck with a hatchet. 

 The sides of the cavity were quite smooth, and the eggs were partly embedded 

 in a slight layer of pine chips. The locality where this nest was found was near 

 the top of a low divide, not over 4,100 feet in altitude. The majority of nesting 

 sites seem to be located in dead trees or stumps, and rarely at any great height 

 varying usually from 2J to 8 feet from the ground. 



Both sexes assist in nidification, which is usually at its height between May 

 20 and June 10, as well as in incubation, which lasts about two weeks. 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 color. 



The average measurement of thirteen eggs in the United States National 

 Museum collection is 24.38 by 18.29 millimetres, or 0.96 by 0.72 inch. The 

 largest egg measures 25.40 by 19.56 millimetres, or 1.00 hj 0.77 inch; the 

 smallest, 22.35 by 17.53 millimetres, or 0.88 by 0.69 inch. 



