52 NOTES ON THE 



than the time in spring of which I have written such state 

 ments become true, for after a short time following their ar- 

 rival, they are only seen in smaller flocks, and then only in 

 pairs, after which, by the first of May, not at all. for the pairs 

 have entered upon their mission of reproduction. Audubon's 

 description of their nidifications, so often quoted, tells it so ex- 

 tremely well that it would be in almost bad taste to undertake 

 another. He says: "In Louisiana and Kentucky, where I have 

 had better opportunities of studying their habits in this respect, 

 they generally pair about the first of March, sometimes a fort- 

 night earlier. I never Jcnew one of these birds to form a nest 

 on the ground, or on the branches of a tree. They appear at all 

 times to prefer the hollow, broken jDortion of some large branch, 

 the hole of our laige Woodpecker {Piats principalis), or the de- 

 serted retreat of the fox squirrel ; and I have frequently been 

 surprised to see them go in and out of a hole of any one of 

 these, when their bodies while on the wing seemed to be nearly 

 half as large again as the aperture, within which they had de 

 posited their eggs. Once only I found a nest (with ten eggs) 

 in the fissure of a rock on the Kentucky river, a few miles be- 

 low Frankfort. Generally, however, the holes to which they 

 betake themselves, are either over deep swamps, above cane- 

 brakes, or on broken branches of high sycamores, seldom more 

 than forty or fifty feet from the water. 



"They are much attached to their breeding places, and for 

 three successive years I found a pair near Henderson, in Ken- 

 tucky, with the eggs, in the beginning of April, in the 

 abandoned nest of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. 



"The eggs, which are from six to fifteen, according to the age 

 of the bird are placed on dry plants, feathers, and a scanty 

 portion of down, which I believe is mostly plucked from the 

 breast of the female. They are perfectly smooth, nearly 

 eliptical, of a light color, between buff and pale green, two in- 

 ches in length by one and a half in diameter. No sooner has 

 the female completed her set of eggs than she is abandoned by 

 her mate, who now joins others, which form themselves into 

 considerable flocks, and thus remain apart till the young are 

 able to fiy, when old and young of both sexes come together. 

 and so remain until the commencement of the next breeding 

 season. 



"In all of the nests I have examined I have been rather sur- 

 prised to find a quantity of feathers belonging to birds of 

 other species, even those of the domestic fowls, and particu- 



