278 HYLOTOMUS PILEATUS, PILEATED WOODPECKER. 



leave the nest in about a week. There were also in the nest two eg:gs, 

 one containing a chick, the other fresh or lately laid. The two young 

 birds whicli escaped from the nest clung so firmly to the branches with 

 their feet that our attemi)ts to dislodge them were of no avail, and we 

 were obliged to reach them with the hand. On now looking at all these 

 young birds our surprise was indeed great, as no two of them were of 

 the same size, which clearly showed that they had been hutched at dif- 

 ferent periods; and I should supi)Ose the largest to have been fnll.N thiee 

 weeks older than any of the rest. Mr. Khett assured us that lie h;id 

 observed the same in another nest i)laced in a tree within a lew paces 

 of his house, and which he also showed to us. He stated that eleven 

 young Cuckoos had been successively hatched and reared in it, by the 

 same pair of old birds, in one season, and that young birds and eggs 

 were to be seen in it at the same time for many weeks in succession. 



"On thinking since of this strange fact, I have felt most anxious to 

 discover how many eggs the Cuckoo of Europe drops in one season. If 

 it, as I suspect, produces as our bird does, not less than eight or ten, or 

 what may be called the amount of two broods, in a season, this circum- 

 stance would connect the two species in a still more intimate manner 

 than theoretical writers have supposed them to be allied. And if our 

 Cow-pen bird also drops eight or ten eggs in a season, which she proba- 

 bl.v does, that number might be considered the amount ot two broods, 

 wliich the Eed-wiuged Starling usually produces.-' 



The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is stated to winter in Southern Florida. It 

 is a ])artially nocturnal species, in so far at least as the fact of its often 

 crying out in the night, and being apparently in motion, may warrant 

 the statement. Besides the insects above mentioned as its food, it eats 

 various grubs, even wood- inhabiting molluscs, and also plucks different 

 kinds of berries and other soft fruits. 



Family PICID^ : Woodpeckers. ' 



lu all our representatives of tbis family, the nesting and eggs are so similar that it 

 becomes unnecessary to refer to the subject under heads of each species. The birds 

 all lay in holes of trees, dug by themselves, depositing the eggs— generally to the num- 

 ber of five or six, but sometimes more or fewer — upon the chips and dust at the bot- 

 tom. The eggs are of a more nearly globular shape than is usual among birds, with a 

 shell of crystal smoothness and purity, white, unmarked. Almost the only difference 

 in the eggs of the species is in size, which corresponds in general with that of the 

 parent, though, in the cases of our two largest species, the size appears disproportion- 

 ately small. Thus, an egg of H. pilcatus measures only 1.25 by U.9b, thus being not 

 much bigger than a good-sized Flicker's egg (1.18 by 0.88). 



HYLOTOMUS PILEATUS, (Linn.) Bd. 

 Pileatcd Woodpeclier. 



Pi'CMS inleatus, Lixx., Syst. Nat. i, 17G6, 173 {Picns nUjcr maximum capitc ruhro. Gates., i, 

 17; 1'. virgiiiiainis ciiisidtiiti, I'liiss., iv, 21); J'ic uoir hiq)pv dc Lon'tiiatu; MVFV., P. 

 E. 718).— G.M., i, 1788. 425.— Lath., Ind. i. 1790, 225 — Vikili.., Ois. Am. Sept. ii, 

 1807, 58, pi. 110.— WiLs., Am. Orn. iv, 1811, 27, pi. 29, f. 2.— Stkpii., Gen. Zool. 

 ix, 158, pi. 32. — Wagi,., Svst. Av. 1827. — Vikill., Nouv. Diet, xxvi, 84 ; Ency. 

 iii, 1313.— Bp., Svn. 1828,' 44.— Sw. & Rich., V. 15. A. ii, 1831, 304.— Lkss., fr. 

 Orn. 1831, 229.— Nurr., Man. i, 1832, 5G7.— Aud., Orn. Biog. ii, 1834, 74; v, 1839, 

 533; pi. Ill : B. Am. iv, 220, pi. 257.— Maxim., J. f. O. vi, 1858, 352.— SuxD., 

 Cousp. Av. Pic. 18()(j, 8. 



Driiotomus pilmUis, Sw., Chissif. Birds, ii, 1837, 308.— Bp., Comp. List, 1838, 39. 



Bryocopiis jiilcafitfi, BoiE. — Bp., Cousp. Av. i, 1850, 132. — Scl., Cat. 1862, 332. — Gp.ay, 

 Hand-list, ii, 1870, 188, No. 803.5. 



DrilojncKs inlcatns, Bp., Not. Orn. Delattre, 1854, 85.— Malh., Mou. i, 34, pi. 11, figs. 5, 0, 7. 



Jjriocpicus pUcutu8, Bp., Cousp. Vol. Zygod., Ateu. Ital. 1854, 8. 



