NOKTHEKN WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER 99 



holes, these probably recording successive years of occupancy. One 

 stub had at least 6 fully excavated holes besides 11 or more pros- 

 pects * » * We were led to conclude from all this that the Wlute- 

 headed Woodpecker is either notional or else very particular, in the 

 selecHon of its homo. Evidence points strongly to the birds excavating 

 and occupying a new cavity each year, although one set of eggs was 

 found in a hole which had been dug in earlier years. 



Thev made a number of careful measurements of four nests, at 

 heights varying from about 5 feet to about 10 feet above ground; the 

 S™1 dtaenfions varied somewhat, but the size of the entrance hole 

 was "surprisingly constant" ; in one case this hole was a perfect circle, 

 Tby 43 nillim^et'ers, and in another 37 by 37 millimeters; m the other 

 two cases the entrance hole measured 47 millimeters in he-f ^^ f 

 in width; translated into inches this shows a variation in the two di- 

 mensions of from 1.45 to 1.85 inches, which does not seem to be sui-- 

 prisingly constant." The total depth of the cavity varied from 275 to 

 400 millimeters, or from about 10 to 15 inches. 



Thev say further: "Two of the nest cavities we found were in such 

 unusual sites as lo call forth comment. One at Hazel Green was ni a 

 danting upright limb on a prostrate dead black oak runk lying in a 

 trn^sv meadow fully 150 feet from the margin of the forest. The 

 S warlva'ted on the lower side of the stub. The other nest was 

 at Tlarack Flat, in the butt end of an old log lifted above tlie 

 lund when the t^ee fell over a granite outcrop- This hoie was abou 

 n! feet above the ground, and as with the other there were piles of 



'SSS -dWli (1930) mention a nest they found in 

 the Lassen Peak region that was "four meters up m the trunk o a 

 dead toDDed aspen." Bendire (1895 mentions a nest found near 

 Camp Harney Oreg., that was about 25 feet from the ground ma 

 deaTlimb of a pine ; this nest seems to be at about the limit as to heigh 

 aboveliound. A set in my collection was taken from a nest 10 feet 



"T,;/-TtThite.headed woodpecker lays three to seven eggs, four 

 behig the commonest number, and five rather often. These vary n 

 sh"fe from ovate to short-ovate. They are pure white and moderately 

 fr quite glossy. Grinnell and Storer (1924) say : "The eggs m one set 

 had a wrinkled appearance at the smaller end as though that end had 

 Wn compressed before the shells had hardened. Eggs which are ad- 

 v'^ceZn nciltion are apt to be soiled by pitch; this is doubtkss 

 brouSt "n by the parent birds on their bills, feet, or plumage." Some- 

 times the el show tiny black dots, or are profusely smeared with 

 b S tom'rhe same caLe. The measurements «* 50 eggs averag 

 24.26 by 18.11 miUmieters; the eggs showing the four estiemes 



