406 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Las Vegas. Later it was ascertained that this form was the same as the breeding 
bird of northeastern California which had been previously described as homorus. 
It is not nearly so common in New Mexico as in most of the rest of the United States, 
but occurs locally over much of the northern part of the State; Clapham, December 
8, 1893, a pair (Seton); south to near Las Vegas, 6,500 feet (Batchelder); Willis, 
7,000 feet (Henshaw); Gallinas Mountains, about 8,500 feet, early in October, 
1904; Horse Lake, 7,800 feet, September 24, 1904 (Bailey); Blanco, 6,000 feet, 
November 16, 1908 (Birdseye); and Ship rock, 5,000 feet (Gilman). In addition 
the species was noted near Black Lake at 8,000 feet September 7, 1903, and on the 
east slope of the Taos Mountains at 8,800 feet September 17, 1903 (Bailey); also 
at Rinconada, 5,600 feet, May 3, 1904 (Surber). The breeding range is thus seen 
to lie principally between 6,000 and 8,000 feet. [On the Penasco River a few miles 
east of May hill a young bird was taken in October, 1917, and on June 28, 1920, two 
nests were found in aspens in the Black Range, 30 miles southwest of Chloride 
at 7,200 and 7,800 feet. Both contained young (Ligon). At Silver City a specimen 
was taken, May 19, 1918 (Kellogg). 1 —W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —In holes in trees, 5 to 50 feet from the ground. Eggs: 5 or 6, white. 
Food. —In 723 stomachs of the various forms of the Downy Woodpecker 
examined the contents was 76.05 per cent animal matter and 23.95 per cent vege¬ 
table. The vegetable matter consisted mainly of acorns and nuts, wild fruits and 
poison Rhus seeds. The animal food consisted of ants, 21.36 per cent; cater¬ 
pillars, 16.50 per cent; wood-boring larvae, 14 per cent; bugs, 8.57 per cent; weevils, 
3 per cent; scales and plant lice, 2.85 per cent. In Montana it has been found 
locating the burrows of the flat-headed apple-tree borer and extracting them in 
numbers, and it is the arch enemy of the codling moth, doing away with the larvae 
in winter and so preventing the destruction of the apple crop. It also destroys 
over-wintering larvae of the European corn borer. The only complaint against 
it is its dissemination of poison Rhus seeds, but in winter they tide it over a shortage 
of other food, so enabling it to do its important work for the forester and orchardist. 
Its insect food is “almost all of species economically harmful,” and it stands as “one 
of our most useful species” (Beal). 
General Habits. —One of the little Batchelder Woodpeckers was 
taken from a willow tree at Horse Lake, September 23, 1904, in beautiful 
fresh fall plumage, though a few wing and tail quills were not full grown 
and a few pinfeathers were scattered over the body. 
The voice of the Downy Woodpeckers while resembling that of the 
Hairy Woodpeckers corresponds with their size, being neither so loud nor 
so sharp. Although found in the yellow pines and even in the spruce 
forests, the Downies prefer rather open and cultivated country, and are 
among the most useful birds that visit the orchards. After the summer 
visitors have gone the social little Downies go about with flocks of chick¬ 
adees, nuthatches, creepers, and sometimes kinglets, which, as Professor 
Beal says, are “ bound together by a community of interest in the matter 
of food, for they all forage over the bark of the trunks and branches of 
trees and eat practically the same things” (1911, pp. 17-18). While 
the Hairy Woodpeckers are shy silent birds of the forest, the little Down¬ 
ies at times come about the homes of men where their calls become 
pleasantly familiar. 
