ROOSTING. 



I do not know how much proof can be offered in support of 

 the popular belief that it habitually roosts in the tree cavities. 

 While it is to be inferred that it frequently does so in cold or 

 stormy weather whenever suitable chambers are available, yet 

 I very much doubt whether accommodations could be found 

 within reasonable distances for more than five per cent, of the 

 number flocking previous to the autumnal migrations as well 

 as the winter season in the south. During the warm summer 

 months it is reasonable to suppose that it would prefer the 

 open air to the hot and stuffy chamber of wood, except of 

 course the short period necessary to hatch and protect callow 

 young. 



Alexander Wilson relates how a captive slept in a perpen- 

 dicular position with its head under its wing. An interesting 

 observation comes from Mexico, Missouri : On a cold blustry 

 evening of the spring of '5)4, a Flicker was observed roosting 

 on the south-w^est .side of the bare trunk of an elm close to 

 the house. The year following, on the warm and balmy even- 

 ing of April Dth, another bird flew into the same elm and with 

 a little scrambling and investigation it disappeared behind the 

 trunk to a nich a little below the crotch of two upright limbs, 

 with its whole body in contact with the bark of the tree and 

 its neck .shortened back into its body — it was evidently in a 

 roosting position. Now^ as it was not know^n whether the 

 previous visitor had staid all night, this one was carefully and 

 perhaps too closely watched, as it left at the call of a pa.ssing 

 mate. The next night was cooler with a north-east wind and 

 a lowering misty vapor in the west, but not very threatening. 

 At 6:o0 the same or another female alighted and quietly 

 shuffled around on the south side to the identical spot occupied 

 for a time the previous evening, but at 7 o'clack it too had 

 vanished. — J. Newton Baskett. Bendire quotes a Maine cor- 

 respondent wdio once found a Flicker asleep on the outside of 



