392 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Creek, August 20, 1908 (Bailey); noted at Fort Webster and Fort Thorn (Henry); 
at Ruidoso, August 2, 1898 (Barber); and at Weed near the south end of the Sacra¬ 
mento Mountains, September 5, 1902 (Hollister). At Aragon in the Tularosa 
Range, the migration of the species, before rare or absent, was well under way 
September 15, 1915, and still on about the same, October 7 (Ligon). In November, 
1874, it was common locally between Fort Tularosa and Fort Craig (Ilenshaw). 
[In winter it is observed sparingly to the central part of the State (1916-1918).] 
Two were seen in the Guadalupe Mountains south of Queen, December 31, 1915 
(Ligon). At Chama in the middle of December, 1893, several small parties were 
seen, all composed of adult males. These disappeared after a heavy snowstorm 
late in December (Loring). A flock wintered at Santa Fe in 1915 and 1916 (Leopold). 
In the spring migration, [March, 1917, it was very abundant near Lamy]; it 
appeared May 2, 1913, near Fair View (Ligon); a specimen was taken May 4, 1915, 
at Silver City (Kellogg); at Fort Wingate May 7-8, 1888 (Shufeldt); and at Santa 
Fe May 6, 1903 (Chapman).— W. W. Cooke" 
Nest. —Six to one hundred feet from the ground, generally in tops of tall pines, 
dry cottonwoods, or dead tree trunks; but also in dead limbs of sycamores, oaks, 
junipers, and willows. Eggs: Commonly 6 or 7, dull white. 
Food. —In summer, mainly insects of various kinds, as grasshoppers, large 
black crickets, ants, beetles, spiders, flies, and larvae, as well as wild berries— 
strawberries, raspberries, service berries, and salmonberries—acorns, pine seeds, 
and juniper berries. In localities where grasshoppers are abundant, the Wood¬ 
peckers live on these pests almost exclusively while they last (Bendire). Investi¬ 
gation by Professor Beal of complaints of injury done to orchards disclosed only 
two cases of serious damage. In a California orchard, where the birds were shot 
on sight, it proved that they had been picking open the apples for codling moth 
worms, taking the fruit that had wormholes! In fall and winter they eat large 
quantities of acorns; also woodbine and five-finger berries. 
General Habits. —With no white patches on the back to confuse 
it with others of the family and with its long oval wings and short tail 
to give it distinctive flight, the Lewis Woodpecker is easily recognized, 
whether fl 3 r ing crow-like across the landscape or, in pursuit of some hap¬ 
less insect, describing a parabola from a fence post. Where numbers of 
them were seen hunting in the Dulce region, over the high pine ridges, 
in some places Mr. Ligon found them almost constantly in sight, pluck¬ 
ing insects from the air, often making two or three captures before glid¬ 
ing to some dead pine top. 
Near at hand the recognition of the beautiful bird is accompanied by 
one of the rare thrills known to bird lovers. One of these thrills Doctor 
Cooper experienced, for he exclaims with enthusiasm:"As it wheels and 
flutters slowly around the trees, the brilliant metallic green and rich 
carmine flash in the sun like the fiery tints of the hummingbird” (1860, 
p. 162). During one fall migration at Tucson, Herbert Brown saw a 
notable sight “not less than fifty of the Woodpeckers circling through 
the air, at an elevation of about 500 feet, with all the ease and grace of 
the Falconidae” (1902, p. 81). 
Like the social acorn-eaters, attracted in summer by grasshoppers 
and in winter by the same fortuitous combination of acorn-bearing oaks 
