WOODPECKERS: CACTUS WOODPECKER 
409 
boundary (Ligon)]; and ranges up the Gila to Cliff (Bailey); and up the San Fran¬ 
cisco to Glenwood (Goldman). The above places represent the northern limit of 
the usual breeding range, but in addition one specimen was taken October 14, 
1904, near Abiquiu (Bailey); the next day one was seen near Espanola, and the 
following day one near the Santa Clara Pueblo (Gaut). As the species is not 
known to be migratory, it is probable that these latter birds had nested in the 
immediate neighborhood.- To the east it occurs in New Mexico to southeastern 
Union County—Clayton, October 22, one; Perico, November 16, several, and 
December 30, one; Clapham, October 31, one collected and December 8, 1893, a 
number seen—“quite common wherever there is timber” (Seton); also cast to Fort 
Sumner, September 24, 1902 (Gaut); and ranges to about 6,000 feet in the Sacra¬ 
mento, White, Capitan, and Guadalupe Mountains. In the middle of winter it 
was found at Bear Canyon and Gold Camp, at about 6,000 feet in the San Andres 
Mountains (Gaut). [On the Rio Grande Bird Reserve (Elephant Butte), it was 
noted November 23-December 9, 1916 (Willett).]—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —From 2 to 30 feet from the ground in holes in mesquite, screw bean, 
palo verde, hackberry, and China trees, willows, cottonwoods, walnuts, oaks, and 
other trees, telegraph poles, fence posts, and stalks of agave, yucca, and cactus. 
Eggs: Usually 4 or 5, glossy white. 
Food. —Mainly wood-boring larvae, but also caterpillars, cottonworms, ants, 
codling moth larvae, and fruit of the giant cactus. 
General Habits. —These attractive little barred, or “Ladder- 
backed Woodpeckers” of the lowlands and river bottoms, often found 
among the willows and mesquites, differ from some of their relatives in 
being more often seen on the branches and twigs than tree trunks, and 
may even be seen picking up insects from sunflower and dasylirion 
stalks, and climbing around cane cactus without disturbance from its 
treacherous spines. In the winter, Professor Merrill says, the Cactus 
Woodpecker “is particularly busy, in valley and on mesa, hunting 
borers and wintering insects, getting many codling moth larvae” (MS). 
Late in the fall of 1893, Ernest Thompson Seton found one in Clay¬ 
ton, on a solitary cottonwood—the only tree in town at that early date, 
1893—“working away on the trunk . . . and stalking it from all 
directions were all the cats in the tow r n” (MS). 
In the warm country in winch it lives, it can well afford to wear its 
thin summer coat late into the fall, and one that was taken on the Chama 
River on October 14, while mainly in fresh winter plumage, still had 
some old feathers, with pinfeathers on its crowm. 
Though so small it evidently has a strong bill, for Major Bendire 
found that it nests preferably in the mesquite, one of our hardest woods, 
having to chisel through “an inch or two of solid wood which is almost 
impervious to a sharp ax” (1895, p. 64). The height of the nest varies 
apparently with the preference of the individual builder. 
By studying the strongly marked characters of individuals Mr. 
Willard has been led to class the little woodpecker with the birds which 
he thinks remain mated for life. During the consecutive seasons which 
