WOODPECKERS: ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAPSUCKER 399 
mountains of the State, ranging well down in the pinyon and juniper throughout 
the winter, to about 8,000 feet, northwest of Reserve (1919).] 
In the spring, in March, 1915, it was found common in western Socorro [Catron] 
County from 8,000-9,000 feet, generally in juniper and pinyon but sometimes in 
yellow pine (Ligon). One was taken April 7, 1892, near Palomas Lake just south 
of the New Mexico boundary (Mearns); and one March 16, 1,900 feet at lijeras 
(Birtwell).—W. W. Cooke. 
Nes T .—L argely in pines, firs, and aspens, 5 to 60 feet from tlie ground. Eggs: 
Commonly 5 or 6, white. 
Food. —In 17 stomachs examined, 87 per cent was animal matter and 13 per 
cent vegetable. Of the animal contents, 86 per cent was ants, and cambium made 
up 12.55 per cent of the total food. The high destruction of ants is favorable, 
and while the cambium record is bad, the Rocky Mountain Sapsucker is “strictly 
an inhabitant of pine forests and aspen groves at considerable elevations, and 
therefore under present conditions is not likely to injure trees of great \ aluc to man 
(McAtee). 
General Habits. —It was in New Mexico in 1873 that this stiangely 
mated pair of Rocky Mountain Sapsuckers—the female brown-barred, 
the male black-coated—with white rump and wing patches—were found 
by Mr. Iienshaw to be mates rather than distinct species as previously 
supposed (1875, p. 394). The cause of this strongly contrasted sexual 
coloration unique among the woodpeckers of the United States is one of 
the unsolved problems of ornithology that stimulates speculation an 
so adds zest to the study. Is it, as Mr. Swarth suggests, that the female 
is still in a primitive stage of development? Correlating the brown 
coloration of the pasture-frequenting Flickers with the ant-eating habits 
so marked in the Rocky Mountain Sapsucker, it would seem that the 
color of the female might have been ancestrally adapted to a more open 
habitat than that in which the pair are found to-day; or has the ant¬ 
eating habit been diverted from ants that live on the ground in the open 
to those that live on tree trunks? The feeding habits of the anomalous 
pair should be carefully studied in the field. 
A female taken by Mr. Gant on Red River, August 16, 1904, was 
early completing its molt, which was an interesting example o t e 
progressive method of wing molt as contrasted with that of the due s 
and geese, which lose all their wing quills simultaneously. In the left 
wing the fifth primary was old, its white edge spots notched out by wear, 
five secondaries were old, and greatly notched at the white spots, w i e 
the rest of the wing feathers, except for a patch of primary covers, were 
new. The right wing showed the same sequence of molt, except that bot j 
fifth and sixth primaries were old. The stomach of the bird was lull o 
large white wood-boring larvae. One shot by Major Goldman at J,UU 
feet in the Zuni Mountains had its stomach nearly full of large wingec 
ants and held one in its bill; while one taken by Mr. Bailey near Black 
Lake, September 9, when it was in fresh fall plumage, had its stomach 
stuffed full of black ants. 
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