54 THE CONDOR [ Vol. II male had to be removed from the nest which was in a live cottonwood seven
feet up, the cavity being nine inches
deep. My observations on this species tally dosely with those of Gairdner's Woodpecker. The Californian Woodpecker (J4telan- erpes formicivorus bairdi) is the most abundant species on the list and fre- quents the oaks more than the cotton- woods. The species also pecks holes in houses and fills them with acorns. It has apparently found out that redwood cornices are easier to work on than oak trees. The Californian Woodpeckei' mates very early and must rear at least three broods in a season, for'I have found their eggs in April badly incu- bated, and again found young late in August. The male bird does most of the work of excavation and the nests are nearly always in living white oaks, where they are difficult to reach, but dead cottonwoods are used occasionally. From three to six eggs are laid, general- ly four or five, and both sexes incubate, the eggs hatching in about two weeks, which is the incubation period of most of the woodpeckers of this locality. Gairdner's Woodpecker requires twelve days as I found out by observation. A set of five Californian Woodpeck- er's eggs taken April 23, t899, were in a hole in a cottonwood twenty-seven feet up. The male was setting and I almost caught him, but as it was he sat on a limb of the same tree and surveyed me. These eggs wdre fresh and of a delicate pinkish tinge before blowing'. Another set of four taken the same day from a nest fifteen feet up in a dead cottonwood were badly incubated. May ?, I took a set of six eggs of this species from a hole twenty feet up in a living white oak which were badly in- cubated, but by the use of pancreatin I saved them, nmch to my satisfaction, as I have never taken another set of this size. Lewis's Woodpecker (Jff elanerpes tor- quahts) is found only among the oaks and it generally nests at great distances from the ground. A set of five taken April 27, t899 were in a hole of a white oak. Lewis's Woodpecker is a shy and retiring bird and seldom utters its peculiar cry, which in no way re- sembles the note of our other wood- peckers. This bird flies like a crow and is difficult to secure with a gun. The eggs are four or five in number and resemble those of the Red-shafted Flicker very closely. They vary much in shape, some being similar in this re- spect to eggs of the Monrning Dove. Lewis's Woodpecker is known as the "Crow Woodpecker," "Black Wood- pecker" and by the juveniles as the "Floating Dish-rag," but where the lat- ter name comes from I am at a'ioss to know. Our last breeding woodpecker is the Red-shafted Flicker (Colapies cajS'r), known as the Yellowhammer and also as the High holder. The species is plentiful at all seasons of the year and in the fall and winter they are some- times found in quite large bands feed- ing upon the ground. They eat berries and other vegetable fo(?d, and in the summer injure considerable fruit, but in this depredation they have for com- pany both Lewis's and the Californian Woodpeckers. The flicker also eats a great many ants as do all the wood- peckers, for nearly every oak tree has an ant's nest in or near it and the ants make life miserable for the collector. The Red-shafted Flicker lays from five to seven eggs, the latter being the largest number I have ever found in a nest. The. eggs vary greatly in size. Incubation begins with the laying of the first egg and a set of seven which I have, varied from fresh in two eggs to half-hatched in another. The nests are usually not far from the ground, 25 or 30 feet being the limit, while most of the nests are but ten or fifteen feet high. The excavation varies in depth from nine or ten inches to two feet and I found a nest over three feet deep in a fence post, where the birds had only stopped digging when they lost their
