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July, 1915 WOODPECKERS OF THE ARIZONA LOWLANDS 155 They picked it clean, and if a new supply was slow in coming the softer parts of the bone were devoured. This T-bone steak diet, however, was prior to the balloon aseenslon of beef. The bone was always nailed fast to the table and it furnished the birds with food and exercise, and us with edification. Mr. Frank Pinkley, custodian at the Casa Grande Ruins told me of a pair of these woodpeckers that stayed around his home and became quite tame, coming into the shed to drink from a can of water. He said they got into the habit of sucking the eggs in the chicken house, or at least peeking into them and eating of the contents. As the eggs were from blooded Wyandot h4ns he had to break the woodpeckers of the habit. I did not ask him how he did it, but fear that it xvas in the same way that he broke some Horned Owls of dining on the same- brand of hens. Water seems to be the least of their worries; perhaps it is sup- plied by the giant cactus they peek into so freely. This woodpecker has not the best disposition in the world, for he is very quarrelsome and intolerant. He fights his own kin and all the neighbors that Fig. 55. Young GILA WOODPECKERS CLIN(]II?(] SIDE OF SA(]UARO. he dares. He, or she, is a great bluffer however and when "called", fre- quently side-steps, subsides, or backs out entirely. I saw one approach a Ben- dire Thrasher that was eating, and suddenly pounce on him. He had the thrasher down and I was thinking of offering my friendly services as a board of arbitration, when the under bird crawled from beneath and soon gave the woodpecker the thrashing of his career. Several times I have seen the wood- peekers start to attack Bendire and Palmer thrashers, but they were always bluffed or beaten at the game. With the Bronzed Cowbirds it is a drawn bat- tle, sometimes one and then the other backing down. Most other birds, such as Cardinals, Abert Towhees, Dwarf Cowbirds and Cactus Wrens do not attempt to assert their rights, but always take a rear seat. When it is woodpecker versus woodpecker it seems not to be a ease of "Thrice armed is he who hath his quarrel just", but rather, "Four times he who gets his blow in lust". I had two bird tables about twenty feet apart, and frequently one wood- peeker might be peacefully assimilating watermelon, when another one would