The Cactus Woodpecker 
tophilus is browner above, more strikingly, heavily, and numerously barred, with less of 
black on sides of head, and red (of adult male) pervading crown as well as nape. 
Nesting. — Nest: A hole at moderate height in giant cactus, Joshua-tree, 
willow, or other tree. Eggs: Usually 4; pure white, glossy. Av. size 20.7 x 15.9 
(.82 x .63). Season: March 25-May, rarely June; one brood. 
Range of Dryobates scalaris. —The southwestern United States south over the 
highlands of Mexico to Yucatan and British Honduras. 
Range of D. s. cactophilus. — Resident in the Sonoran zone of the southwestern 
states, from western Texas to southern Nevada and southeastern California. 
Distribution in California. —The southeastern deserts, broadly; hence, 
occasionally invading the domain of nuttalli through Walker and San Gorgonio Passes. 
Authorities.—Baird ( Picus scalaris), in Rep. Stansbury’s Surv. Great Salt 
Lake, 1852, p. 333 (Calif ,)\ Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, vol. ii., 1895, p. 65, pt.; 
Oberholser, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. xl., 1911, p. 140 (monogr.); Grinnell and Swarth, 
Univ. Calif. Pub. Zook, vol. x., 1913, p. 241 (San Jacinto region; desc. nests and habits; 
distr.; crit.); Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zook, vol. xii., 1914, p. 132 (Colo. Valley; 
habits, desc. nest and eggs, etc.). 
WE HAVE become so accustomed to associating Woodpeckers with 
big timber, that it strikes us as uncanny to flush a Cactus Woodpecker 
from a creosote bush at the edge of the desert, and to have it go plick ing 
contentedly from one bit of dwarf vegetation to another. It is an inexor¬ 
able law of nature that every available space shall be occupied; so here 
is Sir Cactophilus, the apostle of content, making the best of a very 
humble lot, and envying the mighty Logcock not a whit. Of course it 
must not be understood that the Cactus Woodpecker tries to live in the 
central wastes of the desert; for however much it may forage over the 
creosote and cholla patches, on occasion, it requires something of more 
ample girth for a nesting site. Hence, its breeding range is confined to 
the more fruitful upper edges of the Lower Sonoran zone, and to the 
moister bottoms. In the former situation the dried stalks of the agave 
and the lesser yucca (wliipplei), or of the Joshua tree ( Yucca arborescens), 
and the Mohave Yucca offer asylum. In the valley of the Colorado, 
fearing no rivalry from D. pubescens turati, the Cactus Woodpecker is 
able to monopolize the willows which grow so rankly along the lagoons. 
In the two or three limited areas where the giant cactus crosses the river 
to the California side, the Cactus, too, gladly establishes its home within 
the fluted columns, as it does habitually in Arizona. The ripened fruit 
of this giant cactus the bird counts a special delicacy. Outside of these 
favored spots, the stubborn mesquite tree must be conquered, and it is 
rather a pathetic sight to see a nesting cavity which has been drilled with in¬ 
finite pains out of this iron-like wood. Last of all, comes the telegraph pole 
to offer its more easily-won shelter to this child of the desert. Cactophilus, 
in his fresh enthusiasm, is ready to be rechristened telegraphpoleophilus, 
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