WESTERN" PILEATED WOODPECKER 193 



grove which in former years had stood in its entirety in from two to 

 seven or eight feet of water, with the result that Mr. Flickinger dis- 

 covered a fresh hole forty feet up in a live aspen growing close to 

 the lake shore." The nest had been completed, but no eggs had been 

 laid. Returning on May 12, they collected a set of four fresh eggs. 

 They say : 



Tlie nest cavity was eighteen inches deep by about six in diameter, while the 

 entrance was nearly four inches across. 



The nest was visited again on June 1 by both of us, and to our surprise we 

 found that the birds had used tlie same cavity for a second set of eggs, four in 

 number, which were three-quarters incubated. The short time Intervening be- 

 tween the two sets shows that the birds did not lose any time after their 

 first set was lost to them. The locality was again visited on June 30 and we 

 found that the birds had finished another cavity about two hundred feet from 

 the first tree and apparently the female was brooding a third set. We did 

 not disturb the bird and hope that she successfully raised her brood. 



Inasmuch as the lake contained no water at this point we made a careful 

 search of the upper end of the basin with the result that twenty cavities in all 

 were located in various trees in what is usually the lake or very close to its 

 shores. Most of these cavities were in live aspens. Apparently this pair of 

 birds has nested here for a great many years, for although we have carefully 

 worked the surrounding country for miles in every direction we have never 

 discovered other birds or their cavities. 



Eggs. — The western pileated woodpecker apparently lays either 

 three or four eggs; I have no record of five. The eggs are indis- 

 tinguishable from those of the northern pileated woodpecker. The 

 measurements of two eggs in the P. B. Philipp collection are 30.9 by 

 23 and 29.6 by 22.9 millimeters. W. L. Dawson (1923) gives the 

 average measurement as 32.5 by 24.1 millimeters. 



Young. — ^Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock (1904) gives the following inter- 

 esting account of the young : 



The parents are very devoted to their treasures whether they be eggs or infant 

 woodpeckers, and the male rarely fails to stand on guard on a high perch ready 

 to warn and defend should possible danger threaten. The method of feeding is 

 like that of the flickers, by regurgitation for the first two weeks or longer. The 

 adult comes with gular pouch full of food and alights at one side of the nest 

 hole to rest a moment. Though he may have come noiselessly and from the 

 other side of the tree, yet his approach is always heralded by a mowing-machine 

 chorus from the young, plainly heard some yards away. If old enough, the 

 queer-looking little heads are thrust out of the doorway, and the parent, in- 

 serting his long bill into the open mouth of a youngling, shakes it vigorously, 

 thereby emptying the food from his throat into that of his offspring. Each in 

 turn is fed in this odd fashion. * * * 



For a week or two after the young have left the nest, they follow their parents 

 begging for food with ludicrous eagerness; at this time the provender brought 

 them consists of nuts, berries, ants, and the larvae of beetles. These, especially 

 the nuts, are often placed in a crevice of the bark, and the youngster is com- 

 pelled to pick them out. After a few trials he learns to hammer right merrily 

 and is ready to forage for himself. 



