200 
THE CONDOR 
Yol. XII 
As we neared our new camp site, I heard notes from a pair of Mountain 
Chickadees ( Penthestes gambeli) and stopt awhile to investigate. I soon found 
them, and in their vicinity a number of fir stumps, containing numerous holes, 
any one of which might contain the nest. I had not long to wait, for the birds 
hardly notist my presence but went to the nest and fed the young several times in 
the next few minutes. 
While I was watching them, a Red- naped Sapsucker ( Sphyra^jcus v. nucha /is), 
the first I had seen in this region, flew to the same stump in 'which they had their 
nest, and moved out of sight on the side away from me. I heard him call, and a 
moment later two Sapsuckers appeared on the stump. One flew away and the 
other disappeared again. After waiting some time for his reappearance I walkt 
around the stump and on the other side found no bird, but a fresh hole. I rapt, 
and a frightened Sapsucker thrust up his hed and seeing me, drew 7 it back quickly, 
Fig. 68. RED-NAPED SAPSUCKERS AT NEST HOLE; TWO PICTURES: MALE 
AT LEFT, FEMALE AT RIGHT 
and, rap loudly as I could, wouldn’t show himself again. So here was a regu- 
lar bird flat — Chickadees living upstairs with an entrance in front, at least on the 
side that faced the road, and Sapsuckers on the lower floor with an entrance at 
the back. It reminded me of an experience the previous year, when I had found 
Sapsuckers living in the same tree with a family of Pine Squirrels. 
We hadn’t been long at the new camp before I discovered that we were in the 
midst of a regular paradise for hole-nesting birds. The old fir stumps were very 
numerous and many of them occupied. Within a quarter of a mile of camp there 
were nesting, to my knowledge, four pairs of Mountain Chickadees, three of Red- 
shafted Flickers, three of Mountain Bluebirds, two of Rocky Mountain Nuthatches, 
and one of Red-naped Sapsuckers. The reason for the abundance of these birds is 
probably due partly to the number of nesting sites and partly to the scarcity of 
squirrels, animals that are undoutedly the worst enemies of hole-nesting birds. 
