ARCTIC THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. Picoides arcticus (Swainson)

Field characters.—Size somewbat less than that of Robin. Upper surface uniformly black save for golden yellow patch on crown of male (pl. 5c); middle of under surface white (sometimes stained tan-color); flanks, sides of body, and under surface of wings barred narrowly with black and white, and outer surface of wings finely spotted with white. (These characters of barring and spotting were confessedly not apparent to us in the field.) Voice: A low, single-syllabled note, pert, week, or tup.

Occurrence.—Sparse resident of Canadian and Hudsonian zones on west slope of Sierra Nevada. Observed at head of Grouse Creek, in basin of Bridal Veil Creek near Mono Meadow, at Lake Tenaya, at Tuolumne Meadows, and at 8600 feet altitude near McGee Lake. Forages chiefly in lodgepole pines.

Like the Great Gray Owl, the Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker is a typically boreal species finding its southern limit of distribution in the central Sierra Nevada. The instances of occurrence cited above are the southernmost now known.

This woodpecker impressed us as being relatively rare. Only twelve individuals were seen or heard in several months of field work in the Canadian and Hudsonian zone forests. Being a quiet bird it may often have been overlooked, and therefore may be actually much more plentiful than our few records indicate. Attention is usually attracted to the birds by the noise they make when drilling.

On June 20, 1915, a nest of this woodpecker was discovered in a dead lodgepole pine which stood less than 10 feet from the bank of Bridal Veil Creek and within a hundred yards from the point where that stream is crossed by the Glacier Point road between Peregoy and Mono meadows. The nest was about 50 feet above the ground, and as both parent birds were visiting the site at frequent intervals it likely contained young. One of the adults beat a rolling tattoo on a neighboring dead pine. Two days later, on Mono Meadows, when a tapping sound was followed up, another bird of this species was seen, this time in a red fir. The call note then heard had some of the quality of that of the Hairy Woodpecker, but was far weaker.

A bird collected at the head of Grouse Creek on May 20, 1919, gave evidence that she would have laid within a few days. This, again, would place the time for young in the nest at about mid-June.

While one of our party was traversing the trail from McGee Lake to Lake Tenaya on October 5, 1915, he saw two male Arctic Three-toed Woodpeckers foraging close together on a dead lodgepole pine; a single shot secured the two as specimens. At Tuolumne Meadows at dusk on the evening of July 5, 1915, a male was seen foraging on a lodgepole pine. The bird worked industriously, with a quick succession of strokes, and once was seen to steady itself against the tree by spreading one wing. As it took flight, it uttered a single weak note which reminded the observer of the sound produced in twisting a wet cork out of a bottle.