136 The Wilson BI'Lletin, No. T3-T3. 



these proved too shallow to suit the birds for other than roost- 

 ing places. Early in 1908 the first boxes were replaced by 

 boxes made to hold one hundred cakes of that fair emblem 

 of civilization — soap. These offer a nest room eight by twelve 

 inches on the bottom and eighteen inches deep. In the top 

 of each box a hole was made for observations, and a few 

 inches from the bottom a hole large enough to withdraw the 

 hand while lit held a well-grown nestling. This hand-hole 

 was closed by a trap-door, and the bottom of the nest was 

 covered with excelsior, into which sawdust was firmly packed. 



(Ine male Flicker has been the subject of study for four 

 summers. The conviction that it is the same bird each season 

 is founded on the facts of his increasing tameness year after 

 year, hi^ unhesitating occupancy of the barn, and the shape of 

 his almost circular malar stripes. On the fifteenth of April. 

 1908, he had taken possession of the south box, and was call- 

 ing, drumim'ng and practicing flicker-antics in the presence of 

 a female, believed to be his mate. That he with his spacious 

 ready furnished apartment may have proved unusually attrac- 

 tive to the female heart is an incident, which ought not to be 

 too severely condemned by a race of beings among whom male 

 creation is often courted for no superior reasons. Whatever 

 were the underlying motives it is certain that by the twenty- 

 fourth of the month two females were conducting an ardent 

 competitive courtship which lasted five or six days. It was 

 impossible to detect any new methods in their manner of woo- 

 ing. There were the same struttings and spreading of feath- 

 ers, the same dancing, bobbing and bowing that is practiced by 

 the males in a similar situation. 



On the evening of April 30. the rivalry having- ended, a 

 female was found roosting in the west box, two nights later 

 the male was there. On half of the remaining nights before 

 the first egg was laid the female roosted in the west box while 

 the male occupied the south one. A burning question arose as 

 to which box would be used for breeding purposes. The south 

 one was much better located for human observations, also for 



