Sherman— Sign of Northern Flicker. 163 



could not be found ; his last journey may have been the long 

 one from which none return. It is hoped that he died full 

 of years, as he certainly did full of honor. The greatness of 

 the debt of gratitude due him was not fully realized until 

 the timidity of his successor made it apparent. The wildness 

 of this bird precluded the former freedom of nest study : and 

 his offspring, either from heredity or example were wilder 

 than any brood of previous years. 



The courting in 1910 was conducted by the males, and 

 was a very inconspicuous affair. The mother of the nest is 

 believed to be the same as that of last year. She bore no 

 distinguishing marks, but her familiarity with the ]ilace and 

 the readiness \\ith which she took up her roosting" quarters 

 in the old west box pointed to this conclusion. The four new 

 boxes had been placed in the southwest corner of the barn, 

 occupying a space that might have been enclosed in a tree 

 two and one-half feet in diameter. The entrances to two of 

 the boxes were on the south side and the others on the west. 

 In the lower box upon the south side roosted the male be- 

 fore the eggs w^ere laid. As has been related the tame old 

 male of recent years was a masterful fellow and rather in- 

 sisted that the laying should be done in his box. This year 

 the eggs were deposited in the box of neither parent, but in 

 the lower one of the new boxes opening toward the west — - 

 a box in which there had been made no demonstrations of 

 choice before the laying began. Here the male at once took 

 up his abode and later performed the usual duties nf incu- 

 bation and brooding. 



The first egg was deposited on May o, a date ten days 

 earlier than that of any year except 190G. On the morning 

 of May 9 the hour of deposition of the fifth egg was six 

 o'clock and ten minutes, that of the sixth egg was five o'clock 

 and fifty-four minutes on Alay 10, and of the seventh was 

 five o'clock and forty minutes on the following morning. The 

 morning the eighth egg was laid the mother went to sleep 

 several times upon her nest, then sat outside the nest upon a 



