The birds exhibit a preternatural cunning in the selection of nesting sites. Not only do they choose sheer walls, but those which, because of the fissures so afforded, are crumbling and dangerous to a degree. The butte shown in the illustration consists of a hard lava capping over a disintegrating bed of tufa, impossible of ascent and impracticable of descent. Here in some remotest crevice the birds affix a narrow shelf, of straws, bits of weed-stalks, and miscellaneous trash, agglutinated with saliva; and in this four or five narrowly elliptical white eggs are deposited late in June or early in July.
These interesting birds are newcomers within our borders, and their comings and goings are as yet little known. Bendire in 1895 remarked[69] their utter absence from Oregon and Washington. In 1896 I saw a single bird in the gorge of the Columbia near Chelan, and upon revisiting this scene in May, 1906, found that quite a colony of them were haunting a granite wall some 800 feet in height. Late in the same season, and in each succeeding year I have found them in the vicinity of Cold Spring Butte in Douglas County; and have every reason to suppose that other such colonies exist in the Grand Couleé. In the summer of 1906 Mr. Bowles and myself observed them crossing the Cascade Pass in company with Black Swifts; while still more recently, Mr. Charles De Blois Green announces[70] that they have extended their range up the valley of the Okanogan into British Columbia.
Picidæ—The Woodpeckers
No. 162.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HAIRY WOODPECKER.
A. O. U. No. 393 e. Dryobates villosus monticola Anthony.
Description.—Adult male: Above, in general, black,—glossy, at least on crown and cervix, dull on tail, fuscous on wings; a narrow scarlet band across the nape; broad white superciliary and rictal stripes separated by a black band thru eye (including lore), continuous with nape; a black malar stripe broadening behind; white nasal tufts; a lengthened white patch down middle of back; wing-coverts black, or sometimes lightly spotted with white; primaries and outer secondaries spotted with white on both webs (often very lightly on inner webs), the spots on the outer webs confluent in bars on the closed wing; tail black centrally, the two outer pairs of feathers white on exposed portions, the third pair white-tipped; entire underparts clear white; bill and feet light plumbeous. Adult female: Similar but without scarlet band on hindneck. Young birds have the crown chiefly red or bronzy or, rarely, yellowish. Length of adult: 10.00-11.00 (254-279.4); wing 5.20 (132); tail 4.20 (106.7); bill 1.50 (38).
Recognition Marks.—Robin size; black-and-white pattern of head (11 alternating areas of black and white, viewed anteriorly), with size, distinctive; lores black and underparts clear white, as compared with D. v. hyloscopus.
Nesting.—Nest: A hole excavated in tree, usually in dead portion, unlined. Eggs: 4-6, white. Av. size, 1.08 × .77 (27.4 × 19.6). Season: May 15-June 1; one brood.
General Range.—Rocky Mountain district of the United States from New Mexico north to Montana, west to Utah and eastern Washington.
Range in Washington.—Mountain districts of eastern Washington, intergrading with D. v. harrisii along eastern slopes of Cascades, especially northerly.
Authorities.—Not previously published. Based here on specimen taken May 23rd, 1906, at Usk, Wash. (Ident. by Biol. Surv., Washington, D. C.) J. (Open to question thru confessed lack of specimens).
Specimens.—B.
This form finally displaces Harris (D. v. harrisii, with which it intergrades on the eastern slopes of the Cascades) only in the northeastern corner of the State and in the Blue Mountains. It differs in no essential respect from the western variety in habit; but because of the more open character of the timber, is rather more in evidence thruout its range.
On the 22nd of May, 1906, a male of this species was sighted at Usk, on the banks of the Pend d’Oreille River, as he clung to the top of a forty-foot pine stub and delivered, rather gently, his rolling tattoo, or call-note. After repeating this several times he dropped down and entered a hole a few feet lower. We returned the following morning and found the male bird (distinguishable by his red nuchal patch) again on the nest. When I rapped gently on the stub he emerged; and proceeding to his drumming ground above, he rolled repeatedly. By and by the female answered in the distance with the plimp or plick note. Soon she arrived upon the nesting stub, whereupon Mr. Hairy took himself off promptly, and Mrs. Hairy entered the nest and settled to her eggs. Or so you would have supposed, wouldn’t you? By the aid of sixteen spikes, “60’s,” and a rope, I climbed to the nest, thirty-five feet up. With a small hand-axe I enlarged the entrance (sacrificing incidentally a thumbnail, and giving sad evidence of the sway of “mortal mind”) to find only one fresh egg, fourteen inches down.
Taken in Stevens County. Photo by J. H. Bowles.
NESTING SITE OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN HAIRY WOODPECKER.
Of course it was disappointing, but the egg was a pearl, so transparent that one could see the very outlines of the imprisoned yolk.