Sherman — Sign of Northern Flicker. 161 



25. The next spring a bird of corresponding behavior re- 

 turned to this hole on April 12 and continued his roo'^t there 

 for almost a month. The bird in the south hole was a regu- 

 lar lodger from the seventh of August to the first of Octo- 

 ber, excepting two nights when he was frightened away. The 

 occupant of the west hole was the father of the brood raised 

 in the south box, where he took lodgings on April 15 and 

 stayed there the greater part of the time until the young 

 ceased to need his care. This box was cleaned thoroughly 

 as soon as the young had gone out, but apparently it was re- 

 garded as the nursery, and not as a sleeping apartment by 

 this Flicker, who returned to his old quarters in the west 

 end on the sixth of July, preferring it to the cooler place in 

 the f^ast end. On some hot evenings he must have found 

 there a temperature of one hundred degrees, the thermome- 

 ter having shown a mark nine degrees higher two hours 

 earlier. Before July 20 he had failed to come in on four 

 nights, after that he came every night until that of October 

 2. He was there as usual on the evening of the first of Oc- 

 tober, whether he began his southward journey at some time 

 in the night or at an earlier hour than he was accustomed to 

 go out, no one can tell. He wore no tag, therefore gave no 

 one a pretext for killing him ; he returned in safety the fol- 

 lowing spring, and this, it is hoped, he may continue to do 

 for many years to come. 



flickers in 1910. 



Some points of interest in the summer life of the Flicker, 

 omitted from the preceding paper, together with a resume of 

 the history of this species for 1910, are given in the following 

 pages. 



In this portion of northern Iowa the young Flickers meet 

 with few destructive enemies and a goodly number go south- 

 ward every autumn, yet there appears slight, if any increase, 

 in their numbers when they return in the spring. To each 

 of the old nest sites there returns a pair ; these nests in my 

 immediate neighborhood are about a quarter of a mile apart: 



