164 TiiF. \\'iLS()N Bulletin, No. 72-73. 



perch ; thinking that the chitch had been comjileted the watch 

 was discontinued a few minutes after six o'clock. The next 

 morning the nest was not visited until a late hour, hence it 

 was not due to any known disquietude that the female neg- 

 lected her own nest and laid her ninth egg in the box above, 

 having its entrance fourteen inches to the right and above 

 her nest: there the egg was allowed to remain for nearly a 

 month, when it was probably eaten by one of the pair. 



Five of the eggs hatched upon ]\Iay 22, making a period 

 of nine days from the laying of the last egg, a shorter period 

 than that of any previous nest except that of 1905. Since 

 incubation of a some\\hat inconstant nature begins upon the 

 clay the sixth egg is laid it was a bit of good fortune that it 

 was the female, instead of the timorous, complaining male, 

 that w^as at home when the sixth egg broke open at two 

 o'clock and eight minutes in the afternoon of May 22, making 

 its period of incubation twelve days, eight hours and four- 

 teen miuntes, which was exactly two minutes longer than the 

 incubation period for the sixth egg in 1009. The order of 

 the hatching was irregular, the second egg being the fourth 

 to hatch and the first one last. 



The number of young reared in these barn nests has in- 

 variably been five or six. None died in the nest until 1909^ 

 infertile eggs reducing their number to the above figures. 

 This year the last two Flickers hatched, lively little fellows, 

 that struggled hard for food, but apparentl}- received none, 

 died from starvation at the end of their second day. That 

 the father w^as a poor forager is attested by the daily average 

 of weights of the brood, which, during the latter portion of 

 their nest-life, was lower than any previous records ; never- 

 theless the young began to leave the nest when twenty-fi/e 

 days old, which is earlier than some broods leave. The small- 

 est nestling lingered two days longer ; its stay might have 

 been of still greater length if unintentionally it had not beeiv 

 frightened out of the nest about noon of June 18. 



