WOODPECKERS: WHITE-BREASTED WOODPECKER 403 
altitude, doing it all with the lordly, self-conscious air a young wood¬ 
pecker assumes before he has forgotten his egg shell. 
In the dark woods, the white back stripe and the red head patch of 
the Hairy and Downy may well have their uses in keeping families 
together, for, in dim light, a patch of white or red catches the eye sur¬ 
prisingly. 
WHITE-BREASTED WOODPECKER: Dryobates villosus leucothorectis 
Oberholser 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 7.9-9.2 inches, wing 4.9-5.1, tail 3-3.4, 
bill 1.1-1.3, tarsus .8-.9. Female slightly smaller. Like the Rocky Mountain 
Hairy Woodpecker but decidedly smaller, and wing coverts almost always without 
white spots; entire under parts pure white. 
Range. —Apparently resident except for vertical migration in Canadian and 
Transition Zones in the mountains of the interior southwestern United States, 
including southern Utah, western and central Arizona, and middle New Mexico 
south to central western Texas (Guadalupe Mountains). 
State Records. —The type of this form of the Hairy Woodpecker was taken 
September 19, 1905, at Burley, New Mexico, and the subspecies is confined prin¬ 
cipally to New Mexico and Arizona. In the former State it occupies nearly all of 
the area south of the preceding form monticola , north, at least to Fruitland, October 
21, 1908 (Birdseye); the San Mateo Mountains, August 14-15, 1905 (Hollister), 
and San Pedro July 4, 1889 (Bailey); east to the Manzano Mountains, November 
12, 1903 (Gaut); Mount Capitan, June 13, 1899 (Bailey); and Cloudcroft, July 
18-20, 1901 (Fuertes). The extreme southeastern extension is found in the Guada¬ 
lupe Mountains, August 19, 1901 (Bailey); while the form as a breeding bird ranges 
south to the southern part of New Mexico in the Black Range and San Mateo 
Mountains, 6,000-8,000 feet (Ligon); at Silver City (Marsh and Kellogg); and the 
Burro Mountains (Goldman). 
Young in the nest were found at Silver City, 6,000 feet, May 11, 1885 (Marsh), 
[on Chloride Creek at 6,300 feet May 16, 1916 (Ligon)]; and on June 13, 1899, the 
species was taken at about 6,000 .feet near the base of the Capitan Mountains. 
This is probably about as low as it breeds, ranging thence upward to an altitude 
not as yet determined; but, when the young are full grown, both old and young 
are common well up toward the summits of the mountains, at least to 10,500 eet 
on White Water Baldy in the Mogollon Mountains, October 16-31, 1906 (Bailey), 
and to about the same altitude in the Capitan Mountains, August 11, 1903 (Gaut). 
It is probable that these extreme heights are deserted in the winter, but as late 
in the season as November 4, 1909, one was taken at 9,000 feet near Kingston 
(Goldman); and on December 10, 1903, one was noted at 8,100 feet in the Manzano 
Mountains (Gaut). In the Guadalupe Mountains it was common above 5, 
feet, in January, 1915 (Willett); and in the same region south of Queen severa 
were seen December 31, 1915 (Ligon); although during the fall and wintei s ® n j c 
descend to the bottom of the river valleys even to Fort Fillmore (Hemy), 1 a 
(Goldman); and Glenwood (Bailey); [on White Water Creek one was noted ( ctojer 
1, 1916 (Skinner). 1 —W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Generally in small trees in canyon beds (Ligon). 
General Habits.— A White-breasted Woodpecker taken at Cliff on 
the Gila on November 8, 1906, was in surprising plumage for the date, 
