RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER 239 



Charles R. Stockard (1904) located a nest in Mississippi, of which 

 he says : 



In the spring of 1900 a nest of this species was located in a dead Cottonwood 

 tree which stood in an open pasture. The nest was a burrow fifteen inches 

 deep with a perfectly circular entrance about forty feet above the ground. A set 

 of five eggs was taken from it on April 24. The entrance being small it was 

 found necessary to cut it larger so as to admit my hand. Twenty-three days 

 later the same nest contained a second set of five eggs, slightly incubated. The 

 enlarging of the entrance evidently had no ill effect except for the fact that the 

 burrow had been deepened several inches, probably to prevent an extra amount 

 of light on the floor of the nest. These birds seem to gauge the depth of their 

 excavations more by the amount of light admitted than from any instinct to 

 dig a certain distance. For example, burrows that had their entrance just be- 

 low a limb or were situated in shady woods were noticed, as a rule, to be shal- 

 lower than those located in exposed fields or on the sunny side of the tree. 



Bayard H. Christy (1931) describes a nest found in Pennsylvania 

 as follows : 



The hole was in tlie top of a great primeval white oak, standing in the bottom of 

 a wooded ravine and at the edge of a neglected clearing, in southern Beaver 

 County. I had discovered it a month or six weeks before, attracted by the 

 calls of the bird. The hole was drilled in a dead and vertically standing bough 

 about eight inches in diameter, in the very centre of the crown of the 

 oak, and was, I should say, about eighty feet above the ground ; it was drilled 

 in the northern side of the bough, and beneath the talus of a branch which had 

 died and fallen away, leaving a knot-hole a few inches above. The wood- 

 peckers' hole was newly cut, and the bark around and beneath it had been 

 trimmed by use or by design, so that the region about formed a tawny patch 

 upon the grey of the bough. 



S. A. Grimes (1932) mentions four cases that have come under 

 his observation, in which red-bellied woodpeckers have occupied old 

 nests of red-cockaded woodpeckers in Florida. F. M. Phelps (1914) 

 mentions another similar case. 



Eggs. — The red-bellied woodpecker lays three to eight eggs, usually 

 four or five. It is a persistent layer ; if the first set is taken, it will 

 lay a second set within a week or two, generally in the same nest. 

 Mr. Stockard (1904) reports his experience with a pair that laid four 

 sets of eggs, 19 eggs in all, and all in the same nest. 



Bendire (1895) says that "the eggs are white, mostly ovate in 

 shape ; the shell is fine grained and rather dull looking, with little or 

 no gloss, resembling in this respect the eggs of Lewis's woodpecker 

 more than those of the red-headed species." I have seen eggs that 

 are elliptical-ovate in shape, and decidedly glossy; eggs that have 

 been incubated for some time become more glossy than when first 

 laid. The measurements of 50 eggs average 26.06 by 18.78 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 27.00 by 19.79, 

 25.15 by 23o62, 23.00 by 18.70, and 23.11 by 16.76 millimeters. 



Young. — The period of incubation is said to be about 14 days. 

 Both sexes assist in this and in the feeding and care of the young. 



