. Animal life in the Yosemite; an account of the mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians in a cross-section of the Sierra Nevada. Zoology. 332 ANIMAL LIFE IX THE TO SEMITE plumage, even to the red chin spot, at the first fall molt, and by mid- September are in fine feather. Young females acquire most of the adult characters at this same molt save perhaps the black breast spot. The marked differences in plumage between the two sexes in this sapsucker led the early naturalists, in the fifties, to designate the male and female as separate species, and they were so considered until 1874; one auth
. Animal life in the Yosemite; an account of the mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians in a cross-section of the Sierra Nevada. Zoology. 332 ANIMAL LIFE IX THE TO SEMITE plumage, even to the red chin spot, at the first fall molt, and by mid- September are in fine feather. Young females acquire most of the adult characters at this same molt save perhaps the black breast spot. The marked differences in plumage between the two sexes in this sapsucker led the early naturalists, in the fifties, to designate the male and female as separate species, and they were so considered until 1874; one author, at least, went so far as to place them in separate genera! In the Yosemite region the Williamson Sapsucker is closely associated with the lodgepole pine. While this tree seems to furnish the bird's pre- ferred source of forage, practically all other species of trees within its local range are also utilized. We saw workings attributable to this sap- sucker on the alpine hemlock, red and white firs, Jeffrey pine, and quaking Fig. 44. Close view of fresh work of Williamson Sapsucker on lodgepole pine. Photographed at Porcupine Flat, July 1, 1915; about % natural size. The amount of work which this sapsucker will do upon a single tree was impressed upon us while we were at Porcupine Flat in early July, 1915, In that locality there was a lodgepole pine (Pinus miirrayana) about 60 feet high, which showed no marks of sapsucker work previous to the current year. The tree was in full leafy vigor and measured 8 feet 314 inches in girth at 3 feet above the ground. There were numerous live branches down to within 6 feet of the ground. Twenty-six irregularly horizontal rows of fresh punctures were counted on one side of the trunk, the lowest being only 1814 inches above the ground, and the highest about 40 feet. (Part of one series is shown in fig, 44,) No one row of pits com- pletely encircled the tree; a branch had in every instance interfered with the bird's completing the ro
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Keywords: ., bookauthorgr, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectzoology
