96 



THE OOLOGIS1 



Woodpecker Notes for 1898. 



During thft winter of 96 97 an occas- 

 ional Red-headed Woodpecker could 

 be stien in the woods in this vicinity, 

 and I think a few remained all winter. 

 Then on March 9. 97 one was noticed 

 several tira«s in town and on the next 

 day, the lOth. they appeared in numbers 

 heine. from then on, pre«ent all sum- 

 mer in th^ir usual abundance. Conse- 

 quently, on March 9 '98 I had my eyes 

 open for the idvance arrivals; hut none 

 appeared, which however ,did not sur- 

 prise me so very much, though of 

 course, 1 kept on the look-out for them 

 each day, aud made, several special 

 trips into their favorite haunts only to 

 come out at the end of the moath with- 

 out having seen or heard of a single 

 specimen. And not only March bnt 

 most of April had passed before I could 

 note the appearance of M. erythroce- 

 phalus. April 29th I jot down in my 

 note book, "Actually saw a Red-headed 

 Woodpecker, while on my way to work 

 and heard one, while coming home, ten 

 hours later." April 30th several were 

 seen and on May 2nd I record them as 

 "back in old time numbers" 



On May 3rd, while wheeling along a 

 very rough "mud road", south of town, 

 my attention was drawn to a loud note, 

 certainly familiar, though I could not 

 place it at first. So leaning my wheel 

 against a post, I was soon over the 

 fence and had located my bird, a male 

 Red-bellied Woodpecker; but I also 

 found myself in the presence of a very 

 amusing scene. Seated on a stump, I 

 watched an audacious male Red head 

 trying' to court a female Red-bellied 

 Woodpecker, which he had cornered in 

 an old excavation in a dead portion of 

 a large live; elm. The Red- bellied bird 

 stuck her head from the hole every few 

 seconds, whereupon the Red-head 

 popped around so close that she quick- 

 ly dodged inward and disappeared; all 

 this time the Red-head was going 



through the antics and low chucklings 

 in about the usual manner as when 

 courting one of his own kind. Every 

 now and then the female 'Zebra" 

 would call her mate and he, anxious 

 about her. evidently, but not nervy 

 enough to give battle for her sake, 

 would answer immediately and fly in- 

 to the big tree, only t(( be at once driv- 

 en away by Sir erythrocephalus. The 

 male cnrolinus, in that loud note which 

 attracted me from the road would fre- 

 quently call to his imprisoned mate, 

 but she rarely responded to his call. 

 How long this prosrarae was c >ntinued 

 I cannot say, for becoming ili<gusted 

 with the male 'Z-ibra" for nor, liberat- 

 ing his mate, my amusement passed 

 away and I jumped on my wheel and 

 did likewise. The Red-bellied bird, so 

 imprisoned, was distinctly seen sever- 

 al times, she once coming half way out. 

 She seemed as afraid to venture out as 

 her lord was to tackle his adversary. 

 On May 12, my friend, Mr, Hugh 

 Jameson, and I collected a set of the 

 Downy Woodpecker which deserves 

 mention for two reasons: first, height 

 from the ground — forty-three feet, in 

 a tall slender, dead ash: second, num- 

 ber of eggs — seven. Perhaps the loss 

 of no other set in my experience so 

 pained me as did the loss of this set, 

 for one of the seven eggs was accident- 

 ly broken in removing the set and the 

 remainder were too highly incubated 

 to save. Oliver Davie, :in speaking of 

 B. pubescens, says, "The nest is con- 

 structed seldom more than twenty 

 feet from the ground, usually between 

 ten and fifteen feet, the eggs are four 

 or five, rarely six. A W. Butler, in 

 his excellent report on the birds of In- 

 diana, says, "They nest in holes in 

 fences, in orchard trees, generally 

 not high UD," eggs 3 6 If 1 remember 

 correctly. Major Bendirei states that the 

 nests are from five to fifty f^et up and 

 the eggs vary from three or four to 

 SIX in number. I do not know what 

 other authors state, but if sets of seven 

 of Downy Woodpecker are common, I 

 judge they would have said so. C. 

 PiPEK Smith, Anderson, Ind. 



