July, 1915 
WOODPECKERS OP THE ARIZONA LOWLANDS 
159 
merely on the job, and surely “on the peck”. A new-looking hole in a cot- 
tonwood stump only five feet from the ground was noticed, and quietly ap- 
proaching, I placed my fingers over the entrance. I soon received a vigorous 
peck from the lady of the house who was “coming up” with a mouth full of 
sawdust. I took her by the chin and drew her as gently as possible from the 
hole, but after petting her awhile, released her, for she made more noise than 
a sitting hen. Mr. Pinkley at the Casa Grande Ruins showed me a giant cac- 
tus that had been moved to their yard from a distance of a quarter of a mile. 
The cactus at the time of removal contained a nest of young woodpeckers, and 
the mother followed it up and raised the family to maturity, with exception of 
one youngster that became impaled on a thorn at the entrance to the nest. 
The young are fed by the parents for a long time after leaving the nest, 
and they are regular little beggars. One pair stayed around our house for 
several months, and became quite tame. They were missed during the breed- 
ing season but soon came 
back with three youngsters to 
share the good things found 
on the bird tables in the 
yard. The young, although 
as large as their parents, 
would flutter their wings 
and sit with open beak as 
though the old ones told them 
to “open your mouth and 
shut your eyes”, etc. The 
old ones would try to get 
them to eat watermelon 
placed on the tables, but the 
babies would not be shown ; 
the parents had to put it in 
their mouths. They followed 
the parents from perch to 
perch, begging for food until 
I expected to see them chas- 
tised. The pair in question 
stayed with the three juve- 
nals until they had them broken to eat, for themselves, and then left. After a 
proper interval they came back with two more young ones, thus indicating that 
a second brood is sometimes raised. The abundant supply of food may have 
been a determining factor in the number of broods raised. 
The Gila Woodpecker is so prone to adapt himself to different kinds of 
iood that he seems fitted to persist in the face of settlement and civilization. 
Lack of suitable nesting sites might be thought to prove a stumbling block, 
but any old stump appears to answer, no matter whether high or low, so that 
difficulty might be surmounted. He might prove a pest to certain fruits if 
present in sufficient numbers, but that danger is remote, though I have known 
several to suffer through too much devotion to the succulent peach and pear. 
The Red-shafted Flicker ( Colaptes caf er col-laris) spends the fall, winter, 
and the early spring months in this neighborhood but is absent during the 
breeding season. He usually appears the first week in September, the earliest 
9 
