THE OSPREY. 



75 



"THE woodpecker's OUTLOOK." 

 WHERE MR. BREWSTER FOUND THE THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 



which, hitherto, had been remarlcable, or the time The interior or nest cavity was irregularly gourd- 

 for his afternoon outing had arrived, for when he shaped and ten and one-eighth inches in depth, its 

 started he made directly off through the trees and greatest diameter, about four and one-half inches, 

 out of sight. A 

 moment later he 

 drummed several 

 hundred yards 

 away and then fur- 

 ther and still fur- 

 ther off until, 

 reaching a station 

 only just barely 

 within hearing, he 

 kept up his roll call 

 for half an hour, 

 apparently in one 

 place Soon after 

 he ceased a Wood- 

 pecker came flying 

 past and alighted 

 directly at the hole. 

 I immediately shot 

 it and found it to be 

 the female Picoides 

 which we had not 

 hitherto seen. I 

 then waited half an 



hour without seeing or hearing anything of the male, being midway between the bottom and top. The 

 He finally returned at about half past four and I shot walls were rough and seamy but this was not, 

 him also. It was perhaps the hardest task of the perhaps, the fault of the birds, for the wood, although 

 kind that I have ever forced myself to face — the kill- soft and easily worked, had evidently peeled off in 

 ing of these beautiful and most interesting birds — but long, stringy fibers. The eggs lay on a deep mat of 

 1 considered it indispensable to the proper identifica- these shreds some of which were more than one inch 

 tion of the nest, although when the male flew away I in length. The eggs measure respectively .89X.72 

 devoutly hoped that I should never see him again. and .Sgx.yo. They are rounded ovate in shape and 



Upon sawing off the top of the stub we were sur- have a moderate polish, 

 prised and not a little disappointed to find that the According to Major Bendire, our latest and best 

 nest contained only two eggs, both perfectly fresh of authority on the present subject, the eggs of the 

 course. The female, as I found when I dissected American Three-toed Woodpecker appear to have 

 her next day, would have laid but two more. One, been hitherto taken within the United States only in 

 enclosed in a shell not yet hard, and broken by a the Adirondack region of New York where, near the 

 shot, was about half-way down the oviduct ; the border line between Lewis and Herkimer counties, 

 other, a circular sack filled with yelk and of the size the first nest (originally announced in the Bulletin of 

 of a Chipping Sparrow's egg, was still in the ovary, the Nuttall Ornithological Club, Vol. HI, 1878, p. 



On measuring the spruce I found it to be thirty- 200,) containing four nearl}' fresh eggs, was found 

 nine inches in circumference one foot above the " about 8 feet from the ground, in a spruce tree," 

 ground, and twenty-nine inches at the nest. The June 4th, 187S, by Dr. C. Hart Merriam and Mr. C. 

 hole was on the west side at a height above the ground L. Bagg. Afterwards, in June, 1883, "numerous 

 of exactly ten feet and eleven inches. The entrance nests" were examined, apparently by Dr. Merriam,' 

 hole was somewhat irregular outwardly measuring and two sets of four eggs each were obtained on 

 about one and three quarters inches in breadth by June 8th. Most of the nests " were- in Jthe flooded 

 two inches in height — the greater diameter vertically timber bordering the inlet of Seventh Lake, Fulton 

 being due to the fact that the lower edges had been Chain. They varied from 5 to 12 feet in height 

 chiselled away rather freely to afford a foothold for above the water, and were in spruce, tamarack, pine, 

 the bird; half an inch in, the hole was perfectly balsam and cedar trees," (Bendire, Life Histories 

 round and measured one and one-half inches in N. A. Birds, Part H, 1895, pp. 78,^79). 

 diameter. ' From Dr. Merriam's experience and my own, as 



