404 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
some of the black feathers on its wings and back being brown, they were 
so old and sunburned ; but this was probably due to some abnormal con¬ 
ditions of the individual without relation to the date of normal molt for 
the species. 
Along Dry Creek, in October, 1908, when Major Goldman found the 
birds rather common among the oaks, he writes: “One afternoon I found 
one pecking at a hole near the ground in the trunk of an oak. It worked 
for a second or two and then paused long enough to look in my direction, 
beginning work again immediately. This was repeated several times and 
it seemed disinclined to leave the spot, allowing me to approach to 
within ten feet when, instead of flying off, it slid around to the opposite 
side of the trunk while I examined the place and found the hole in¬ 
habited by numerous small black beetles which were running excitedly 
about. I moved off a short distance and watched the Woodpecker return 
to the hole which seemed to be a rich find” (MS). 
On Chloride Creek in May, 1916, when Mr. Ligon was standing by a 
half dead box elder containing a woodpecker nest, the mother came with 
her bill for half its length jammed full of wood ants for the squawking 
young inside the hole (MS). One that Mr. Kellogg took at Silver City 
had recently eaten two woodboring larvae, six caterpillars, and at least 
ten moth pupae, besides other insects and mast. 
CHIHUAHUA WOODPECKER: Dry6bates villosus icastus Oberholser 
Description.— Male: Length (skins) 7.3-8.4 inches, wing 4.6-5.5, tail 2.6-3, 
bill 1-1, tarsus .8. Female slightly smaller. Adult male: Upperparts, including 
middle tail feathers, black; with scarlet nuchal band, white median stripe down 
back, mainly white outer tail feathers, white spotting on wing quills, and white 
lower belly, stripes enclosing black streak back of eye, and entire underparts, except 
lower belly , brownish gray. 
Range. Transition and Canadian Zones in the mountains of southeastern 
Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northwestern Mexico south to Nayarit, 
Jalisco, and Zacatecas. 
State Records. —The Chihuahua Woodpecker was found, August 2, 1908, 
on Animas Peak, Animas Mountains (Grant County), at 8,000 feet (Goldman); 
and September 29, 1893, on the western side of the San Luis Mountains (Mearns), 
BATCHELDER WOODPECKER: Drydbates pubescens homorus Cabanis and 
Heine 
Description .— Male: Length (skins) 5.7-6.G inches, wing 3.7-4.0, tail 2.2-2.G, 
bill .6-7, tarsus .6-7. Female as large or larger. Adult male: Upperparts black , 
with scarlet nuchal band , white stripe down back , tail with four middle feathers black, 
the next black and white and the two outside pairs white , usually slightly marked 
with black; wing quills spotted with white, coverts with little or no spotting; underparts 
white; iris brown or reddish brown, bill horn gray, legs and feet olive-gray. Adult 
female: Similar, but nuchal band white and black instead of scarlet. Young male: 
Similar to adult male but without red nuchal band, and with back of head and crown 
marked with red, and crown often dotted with white, underparts sometimes more 
