268 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A recrudescence of the amatory instinct is sometimes seen in fall. 

 On September 22, 1933, a clear, warm morning, a pair of flickers, 

 male and female, were watched for some time as they performed 

 their courtship dance on the top of one of my chimneys, where there 

 might have been some warmth remaining from a fire that had since 

 died out. They danced around on all four sides of the chimney, 

 always facing each other, both of them bowing and swaying the 

 head and neck, or whole body, from side to side, with the neck ex- 

 tended and the bill pointing alm.ost straight upward. Sometimes 

 they stopped for a few seconds, holding the upright posture, or one 

 performed while the other posed. There was no wing or tail display 

 that I could see. Lewis O. Shelley tells me that he has seen flickers 

 in courtship display while the young were just leaving the nest. 



Nesting. — Soon after mating is accomplished the choice for a nest- 

 ing site is made, and often the selection is made during courtship, 

 especially if a nesting cavity of the previous year is to be used. 

 Probably the female usually makes the final decision, though there 

 is some evidence to indicate that in many cases the male selects the 

 site and persuades his mate to accept it. 



Miss Althea R. Sherman (1910) made some very thorough studies 

 of the nesting habits of the northern flicker at National, Iowa, in 

 some boxes so arranged on her barn that she could observe the home 

 life of the birds at close range. The male and the female had been 

 occupying two different boxes as roosting places, and the eggs were 

 laid in the box occupied by the male, from which it became evident 

 "that the male bird chose the nesting place, and persuaded his mate 

 to lay her eggs there, even when she was inclined to nest elsewhere, 

 and when she had a box quite as good as his." 



Often the male "stakes out his claim," so to speak, in the vicinity 

 of an old nest, where, during the courtship period, he utters his 

 loud mating call for several days, or even weeks, before the female 

 answers the invitation. Then, after mating is accomplished, his 

 chosen mate may or may not accept his choice of a nesting site. The 

 desirability of the nesting site may in such cases influence the female's 

 choice of a mate, for she is as much interested in having a com- 

 fortable and safe home as in choosing a handsome husband. 



Having chosen the site, the pair set about repairing the old cavity 

 or excavating a new one, at which both birds work diligently for any- 

 where from a week to three weeks, depending on the conditions they 

 find. Mr. Shelley tells me that, in his experience with several nests, 

 rhe nesting cavity is completed from a week to a fortnight before 

 the eggs are laid. The chips are usually, but not alv/ays, carried 

 away to some distance from the nest tree, but often chips are merely 

 scattered about the base of the tree. William Brewster (1936) gives 



