YOUNG. 



It is hatched both blind and naked, remaining in this help- 

 less and callow condition for over a week. It is not known 

 when the white membranous process which extends from 

 either side of the base of the lower mandible disappears, but 

 it probably goes at a very early age. This formation is appar- 

 ently peculiar to all young Woodpeckers, as suggested by 

 Frank A. Bates in the Ornithologist and Oologist, Vol. XVI., 

 p. 35, but its use is unknown. The young are often piled on 

 top of one another, but soon learn to cling to the side of the 

 cavit}' and avoid too much crowding. On cold or stormy days 

 one of the old birds covers them at intervals, as well as at night, 

 when extremely young. Nearly every one is familiar wdth the 

 sounds uttered by the unfledged brood, which has been com- 

 pared to the hissing of a nest full of snakes ; as they grow 

 larger, to the winding of a clock ; and finally to the click and 

 clatter of a mowing machine. If the tree or stub in which 

 they are situated is pounded, their combined voices increase to 

 a perfect storm of vociferation. Both sexes feed the young 

 with equal assiduity, and up to the time they leave the nest, 

 by the process of regurgitation only. Nuttall appears to have 

 been the first to discover this peculiarity, but when it was 

 more fully commented upon a few years since by Olive Thorn 

 Miller \n A^esting Time, William Brewster in Auk, Vol. X., 

 p. 281, and J. N. Baskett in Nidologist, Vol. II., p. 110, it ap- 

 peared something in the nature of a revelation. Mr. Baskett 

 kindly furnished me with some data relating to the same nest 

 full of young, from which he took the notes for his article in 

 the above magazine, and is substantially the same. The par- 

 ents appeared to have different places from which to procure 

 food, and were gone at irregular intervals, rarely both present 

 at once. Nothing was ever visible in their mouths, and the 

 regurgitation, while labored, never seemed to indicate that an}^ 

 large portion was being thrown up. The parent drove its 



