14 BULLETIlsr 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Eex Brasher (1926) writes: 



Seated under a cluster of small maples, one day in early May, I watched the 

 interesting courting antics of the pair. The jaunty male's favorite position 

 was one in which he appeared to be almost standing on his tail. With bill 

 upright, wings thrown forward, and tail wide-spread he repeated over and 

 over what was undoubtedly intended for a love-song, a series of notes divided 

 between chuckles and whistles. But the strangest, most mystifying performance 

 was a series of baclvward drops on the under side of a limb inclined about 

 forty-five degrees. * * * Why didn't the little acrobat fall when he released 

 his claws? Studying his movements carefully through the binoculars, I came 

 to the conclusion that at the instant of releasing his grip he jerked his body 

 toward the limb with sufficient impetus to catch the bark six inches or so below. 



Lewis O. Shelley says in his notes : "I have watched the act of copu- 

 lation of the hairy woodpecker and noted its dissimilarity to the 

 downy. For the hairy invariably instills a follow-up procedure to the 

 display, the male coming to her call and, soon thereafter, hopping up 

 the branch toward her with a short jerking movement, in which he 

 calls tvich-up, loick-up^ wick-wp, wings agitating, this immediately fol- 

 lowed by copulation." 



Nesting. — The hairy woodpecker is rather rare, as a breeding bird, 

 in my home territory in southeastern Massachusetts, but I have the 

 records of 12 local nests. It shows a decided preference for deciduous 

 woodlands, six of the nests being in dry, upland woods and two in 

 maple swamps; of the other four nests, three were in apple orchards, 

 close to extensive woodlots, and the fourth was in a small, living, red 

 maple in a swampy meadow, some distance from any woods. The 

 birds showed no decided preference for any one species of tree ; three 

 nests each were found in maples and apple trees, two each in chestnuts 

 and poplars, and one each in a dead oak and a dead beech. Only 

 four nests were in dead trees or dead branches ; the others were all in 

 living hardwoods. The heights from the ground varied from 5 feet 

 in a dead poplar stub to 90 feet, or more, in tall chestnuts or maples. 

 The entrance to the nesting cavity often appears nearly, or quite, 

 circular, but on careful measurement will usually be shown to be 

 more or less elliptical, higher than broad; a typical entrance hole 

 that I measured was \% high by II/2 inches wide. The depth of the 

 cavity was found to vary from 10 to 12 inches, but Mr. Shelley (1933) 

 measured one that was 15 inches deep, and even deeper holes have been 

 reported. Owen Durfee's notes give some very careful measurements 

 of two of our local nests, one of which is worth quoting as showing 

 an unusually elliptical entrance : "The entrance to the nest was on the 

 northeast side of \ he trunk of a live chestnut and 22i/o feet from the 

 ground. The tree leaned toward the east about 2 feet. At the butt 

 it was 9 inches in diameter and at the opening about 61/2 inches. The 

 opening had the usual elongated appearance, 2% high by 1% inches 

 wide. The top of the hole went straight in across the cavity for 4^/2 



