54 



THB OOLOGIST 



was deserted on May 11, when it had 

 been occupied on April 16th ult., by 

 over seventy pairs of birds and at that 

 time most of the nests held full sets. 

 \Ve never really learned the cause of 

 its desertion but believe Italians and 

 Negroes were the cause as they an- 

 nually raided it of the young birds for 

 food. Richard F. Miller. 



Still in California. 

 THE OOLOGIST for this month is 

 edited by one not so well versed in the 

 business as the Editor, who is still at 

 the bedside of his dear mother in 

 California. We trust therefore that 

 the real standard of the magazine will 

 not be judged by this issue. 



Unused Red-headed Woodpecker's 

 Nest. 



One day during the spring of 1914 

 I was walking through a certain 

 stretch of oak woods where many of 

 our nesting birds are found in abund- 

 ance, and having from a distance 

 sighted a Blue Jay's nest, was ap- 

 proaching to investigate it, when there 

 flew, not a Blue .lay, but a Red-headed 

 Woodpecker. The nest was eight feet 

 up in an oak sapling and was a typi- 

 cal Blue .Jay's but was found to con- 

 tain three pure white and unmistak- 

 ably Woodpecker eggs. 



It must have been that the holes in 

 the neighborhood were all occupied or 

 possibly the bird was driven from its 

 anticipated home when about ready to 

 deposit, and thereby forced to use 

 whatever receptacle it could find for 

 this purpose. At least it is the only 

 instance in which I have found a 

 Woodpecker nesting in such an open 

 situation. 



Melanerpes crythrocephalus is very 

 imgnacious and I know of two cases 

 in which the quarrel over a nesting 

 hole ended in fatalities. An old wil- 

 low which stood in the low, wet end 



of £. hay field and the only suitable 

 nesting site in the near vicinity, was 

 the scene of many Woodpecker wrang- 

 les. There were a half-dozen good 

 nesting cavities in the tree and one of 

 them would be selected and enlarged 

 for use every year. I have often 

 watched the birds as they fought vig- 

 orously for possession of this tree; it 

 was really impossible to tell which 

 pair were on the offensive and which 

 on the defensive as they were both 

 equally obstinate. On one occasion af- 

 ter one of their quarrels I found one of 

 the birds dead underneath the tree 

 and at another time a dead bird was 

 found in one of the holes, both appar- 

 ently victims of their own pugnacity. 

 Aside from this peculiar nesting of 

 the Red-headed Woodpecker I have 

 found two other unusual sets that have 

 not been reported in THE OOLOGIST 

 though I have noted similar sets re- 

 liorted therein. One of these was a 

 set of five robin eggs which I found 

 on May 26th, 1906, and the other a set 

 of three Mourning Dove's found on 

 May 28th, 1908 One of the eggs in 

 the set of five of the robin was a runt, 

 little more than half the size of the 

 rest in the set. The nest was direct- 

 ly back of our house and placed in a 

 dead red oak twenty-two feet up. The 

 ;\Iourning Dove's nest was ten feet up 

 and placed on a few twigs which had 

 sprouted out from the side of the 

 trunk of an oak. 



E. A. Stoner. 

 Des Moines, la. 



Notes. 

 On .January 7th while in Cedar Is- 

 land, Back Bay, Princess Anne Co., 

 Virginia, I scared up one Sora and two 

 Wilson Snipe. Owing to the thermom- 

 eter having been down to seventeen de- 

 grees above zero previous to that date, 

 I consider it strange to find such 

 birds with us. 



