J^ehraska OniitJiolo^isfs' Union 77 



and at the base of the hills, but of the two forms present 

 this was the less common one in the neighborhood of the 

 Reserve station although 1 saw it at intervals throughout 

 the summer. It no doubt breeds here as does the Black- 

 billed Cuckoo but I found no nests. 



50. Coccyzns erythropkthalmiis (Wilson) — Black-billed Cuc- 



koo. 

 This cuckoo is a moderately common summer resident 

 and breeder at Halsey. On June 8, 1912, I found a nest 

 with a set of three eggs and the full set of four was com- 

 pleted on the following day. June 10, I found another 

 nest with a single egg and with two additional eggs added 

 by the 13th. These nests were at the usual low elevation, 

 one of them in a low bush on the hillside facing the river, 

 the other in a marshy place bordering the stream, on the 

 top of an old willow stvirap around which had grown up 

 new shoots of the tree, forming a shaded retreat in the 

 center with a sort of stockade around it. This latter nest 

 was lined with sprays of willow seed-pods. 



51. Ceryle alcyon (Linnaeus) — Belted Kingfisher, 



A pair of Belted Kingfishers had their nest somewhere 

 back in the hills where the hard-packed, perpendicular 

 side of a blowout furnished the only sort of situation in 

 the region where they could excavate the horizontal bur- 

 row in which their eggs are laid. Just which particular 

 blowout had been chosen by the birds I covild not discover 

 but they were often seen a half mile or more from the 

 Middle. Loup river and may very likely have nested even 

 farther from the stream than that. In the valley of the 

 Dismal, where the river in its windings has cut steep banks 

 in the side of the hills along its edge, the kingfishers have 

 undoubtedly made use of these banks for nesting sites, 

 but the absence of such cuts on the Loup river near the 

 Reserve station and the level condition of the shores of 

 that stream have made necessary the sort of proceedure 

 to Mdiich the birds there resort. The kingfisher was noted 

 at Halsey October 28, 1910, by M. H. Swenk. 



52. Dryobatcs villosiis (Linnaeus) — Hairy Woodpecker. 



A pair of Hairy Woodpeckers was noted September 

 22, 1911, among the trees at the base of the hills, and on 

 August 27 the following year I saw a single individual in 



