386 



XOETH AMERICAN FAUXA. 



Lno. 27. 



Fort Smith late in June, and on our return trip I heard one on the 

 Athabaska near Big Mouth Brook August 27. 



In 1903 Tre noted this species May 30 near Poplar Point on the 

 lower Athabaska, Avhere we heard its loud and characteristic notes 

 in the dense spruce forest. On their return trip Alfred E. Preble 

 and Merritt Carv heard one near Brule Eapid August 19, and saw 

 another in poplar woods near Vermilion Creek, Alberta, Septem- 

 ber 23. 



In 1904 I noted this species on but one occasion, observing a single 

 bird on the Athabaska 20 miles below Athabaska Landing Septem- 

 ber 1. 



Eicharclson described a specimen killed near the Rocky Mountains, 

 presumably by Drummond. and says : 



This great woodpecker is resident all the year in tlie interior of tlie fur coun- 

 tries up to tlie sixty-second and sixty-tliird parallels, rarely appearing near 

 Hudson's Bay. but frequenting the gloomiest recesses of the forests that skirt 

 the Rocky Mountains.^ 



Ross records it as occurring in the Mackenzie River region north 

 to Fort Liard, but as rare.^ Bendire records specimens from Fort 

 Liard and Big Island.^ Macoim states that J. M. Macoun found the 

 bird rare on the Clearwater River in the summer of 1888.^ 



Colaptes auratus luteus Bangs. Xorthern Flicker. 



This widely distributed woodpecker occurs abundantly north to 

 Great Slave Lake and the upper Mackenzie, and less commonly 

 northward to the limit of trees. It is replaced along the eastern 

 base of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta by the form Colaptes c. col- 

 laris^ whose range it overlaps to some extent. 



In 1901 we saw this species daily between Edmonton and Atha- 

 baska Landing, April 29 to May o. For two or three days after we 

 left Edmonton it was less abimdant than the red-shafted flicker, but 

 the relative number of C. a. Ivteus increased as we approached 

 Athabaska Landing. Xear Sturgeon River, on May 1, we saw a pair 

 excaA^ating a nesting cavity. TMiile we were descending the Atha- 

 baska we noted the species at Brule Rapid May 11 and 12, and on 

 the lower part of the river May 15 and 16. TTliile encamped at 

 various places near Fort Chipewyan, May 18 to Jime 5, we found it 

 common and collected several specimens. T\"e noted the species on 

 Rocher River June 5, and at our camp on Slave River. 10 miles below 

 the mouth of the Peace, we observed it daily. June 7 to 10. finding 

 a nest containing fresh eggs on the former date. TTe foimd it 



a Fauna Boreali-Americana, II, p. 304, 1831. 

 ^Nat. Hist. Rev., II (second ser.). p. 278. 1862. 

 ^Life Hist. X. A. Birds [II], p. 103. 1896. 

 ^ Cat. Canadian Birds, Part II, p. 311, 1903. 



