238 BULLETIN 17 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



as in the oak hammocks. Newly cleared lands in which numbers of 

 girdled trees still remain standing are favorite resorts for this as well 

 as other species." 

 Nesting. — Bendire (1895) writes: 



Birds that migrate from the northern portions of their range usually arrive on 

 their breeding grounds rather early, sometimes by March 20, and shortly after- 

 wards preparations for nesting are commenced. A suitable site is readily found 

 in the decayed top of some tree, or in an old stump, near a stream along the 

 edges of a pasture, or close to some road, and less often farther in the center 

 of a forest. Deciduous trees, especially the softer wooded ones, such as elms, 

 hasswood, maple, chestnut, poplar, willow, and sycamore, are preferred to the 

 harder kinds, such as ash, hickory, oak, etc. In northern Florida they nest fre- 

 quently in pines. Several excavations are often found in the same tree in 

 which the nest is located, and occasionally the same site, with slight repairs, 

 is used for more than one season. * * * 



Both sexes assist in excavating the nesting site, as well as in incubation, 

 which lasts about fourteen days. The sites selected are usually from 5 to 70 

 feet from the ground, and resemble those of our Woodpeckers in every re- 

 spect, averaging about 12 inches in depth. It takes from seven to ten days to ex- 

 cavate a nest, and frequently the birds rest a week afterwards before begin- 

 ning to lay; an egg is deposited daily, and from three to five are usually laid 

 to a set, rarely more. 



Mr. Howell (1932) says that in Florida "almost any kind of a tree 

 will satisfy the birds for a nesting site, but a partly decayed stub 

 seemingly is preferred. Where cabbage palms occur, a dead stub of 

 that tree is often chosen, and cavities in oaks, cypresses, pines, and 

 other trees are frequently utilized, the nesting hole being anywhere 

 from 5 to TO feet from the ground, usually, however, under 40 feet. 

 Nesting begins in April and continues until June." The only nest I 

 ever examined in Florida was found on April 25, 1903, on one of the 

 Bowlegs Keys, in the Bay of Florida ; it was placed in a dead branch 

 of a black mangrove; the cavity was about 14 inches deep and con- 

 tained four fresh eggs. 



Mr. Simmons (1925) says that in Texas this woodpecker nests in 

 "dead limbs of stumps of hackberry, Chinaberry, cedar elm, pecan, 

 and American water elm trees, particularly the rotten, shaky, skele- 

 ton upper-parts of living hackberry trees in backyards, or in tele- 

 graph poles along city streets and alleys." In a small village in 

 Texas I once found a nest containing three eggs in a fencepost near 

 one of the houses. 



Various observers have given quite different measurements of the 

 nesting cavity. Mr. Simmons (1925) says: "Entrance, diameter 1.75 

 to 1.96. Cavity, depth 10 to 12; widest diameter near bottom (3 

 above eggs) 5.25." William H. Fisher (1903) found a nest in 

 Maryland in which "the opening measured 2 by 214 inches and it 

 was 5 inches from the outer edge of the hole to the back wall." 



