Woodpecker WESTERN BIRDS 



thought that he was in there in hopes of getting fed had 

 I not seen distinctly a big fly in his bill as he entered. 

 Not only did he differ from the old birds in the ways 

 mentioned but as he entered the hole several white marks 

 showed plainly on the underside of tail feathers. Once 

 more he stole into the nest and stayed eight minutes 

 before they got him out. The first time it had been 

 twenty minutes. 



In an hour's watching the birds fed twenty-eight times, 

 the shortest interval being one-half minute, the longest 

 eight. In nine minutes they fed eight times. Surely 

 with three birds working at that rate the nestlings ought 

 to thrive. 



On the fifteenth, when the young must have been about 

 ten days old, they were fed twenty-four times in fifty- 

 eight minutes. They were now being fed mostly acorns 

 which the adults took from the poles nearby, sometimes 

 digging them out in pieces, and sometimes taking them to 

 the top of a flat pole where they pounded away for some 

 minutes before coming to the nest with their bills stuffed 

 full of the white bits. From this time until the young 

 left the nest they were fed mostly on these acorns. 

 Sometimes the birds flew to an oak tree where they took 

 the green acorns and brought them to the poles. I be- 

 lieve, however, that they were feeding the more seasoned 

 ones to the young. 



On the twentieth I was extremely interested to see the 

 male eating black scales from a pepper tree about a 

 block from the nest. 



At this time a big young one was in the holeway and 

 I was told that two of the nestlings were found at the 

 foot of the pole. While it seemed hardly credible that 

 two of them should have been pushed out, there proved 

 to be only one that left the nest, which was either late 

 on the twenty-fifth, or early on the twenty-sixth of 

 September. 



32 



