THE 00L0GI8T. 



147 



t'ggsi of tilt' Ki'd HfiuU'd Wooclpeeker. 

 nest ill :ui (»1(1 oak riglit in tlie lieai't of 

 the I'ity. Tliis sot deserves special 

 iiieiition as it is rather a peeiiliar one. 



Eggs No. 1 and 2 aic perfect!}- fresh 

 and hav(f tiiat unniistakaMe |)iiikisli 

 tinge of newness. 



No. 8 and 4 art^ dark an«l on Idowing 

 I find incul)ation advanced in one and 

 in the other the yonng bird was almost 

 ready to i)rcak its shell. 



No. 5 however, is the queerest of the 

 lot^ insomuch as it contains — nothing. 

 An egg laid, containing nothing but air 

 and abont two grains (by weight) of 

 yolk. My boy exclaimed on picking it 

 up, "humi)h, here's an egg laid already- 

 blown." 



No. 2 was unusnally laro'c, measuring 

 1.0(5} X .7(i. The shell was rough and 

 had little bunches of shelly matter 

 scattered f>ver the surface ;uul it was 

 only about one-half tilled. With all, it 

 was the most remarkable set I have 

 ever taken. (Note: In 1888, I col- 

 lected a set of one egg out of another 

 tree near tliis one. There was Init the 

 one egg whicli measured .80 x.62.) 



June 16th. To-da}', 1 collected a tine 

 set of live eggs of the (ireat Crested 

 Flycatciier. nest in a round trough, 

 through Avhich \\'ires used to run dur- 

 ing shooting matches, composed of 

 pine straw, leaves, seeds, bits of rope 

 and fur; also a little cotton and hair 

 and tlie inevitable snake skin, "Par. 

 necessity." 



8. A. Taft, 

 Aiken, S. C. 



A Flicker Moving its Household Effects. 



On tlie moiiiing of May lit, 18ii0, I 

 started for what tlie lioys, around 

 where I live call tin' country, after 

 I'eaching a clump of trees some two or 

 three miles fnnn the city, I sat down to 

 rest, at the foot of a large yellow birch. 

 I liad not been sitting theie verj' long 

 l)efori' I was startled from my medita- 

 tions l)y the cry of a Yellow Hamnu-r 



directly al)ove me, and on looking iij) I 

 saw the old tellow about to entei' a hole 

 in the decayed terminal branch of the 

 Ijirch. 



Soon after he reajipeared with what I 

 at first supposeil to be a chip, in his 

 beak. This supposed chij) I soon per- 

 ceived to be an egg, which he held 

 lengthwise. After looking around, he 

 flew to a tree about a fourth of a mile 

 distant. I being determined to rescue 

 the remaining eggs, immediately 

 climljed the tree, only to find that all 

 tlu' eggs had been removed. After de- 

 scending I started for the other tree, 

 u])on whose top-most branc-hes I could 

 see the parent Flickers. On reaching 

 it I iiercei^ed that , the reward of pos- 

 sibly' a half dozen of eggs would not 

 warrant the task of climbing, as the 

 tree was barren of limbs for the greater 

 jiortion of its heighth. 



('. Ki rRp:('HT. 

 Cleveland. (). 



Hairy Woodpecker and Potato Bugs. 



Last summer, potato bugs covered 

 every ])atch of potatoes in Marathon 

 county, (being my home count}',) Wis. 

 One of my friends hei-e, found his 

 patch an exception, and tlun'cfore took 

 pains to find the reason, antl observed 

 a Hairy Woodpecker, making frequent 

 vi-sits to the jiotato field and going 

 from there to a large ])ine stub a little 

 distance away. 



After oliserviiig this for about six 

 weeks, he made a visit to the pine stub 

 and found, on inspection, a large h(de 

 in its side about fifteen feet up. He 

 took his axe and cut down the stub, 

 split it open, and found iu.side, over 

 two bushels of bugs. All liad then- 

 heads oft' and bodies intact. Now why 

 did the Woodpecker carry the bugs 

 whole U) the tree and only bite off" and 

 eat the iieads, which could have been 

 done in the potato field? 



V. A. Aluekson. 

 Marathon C(k, Wis. 



