Additional Flicker Notes. 35 



ite: the Broad-winged Hawk — with the somewhat modify- 

 ing term — sometimes. A nest of lusty young hawks exam- 

 ined in July, 'oi, contained the primaries and rectrices of 

 one or two young Flickers, probably just out of the nest. 

 Two dried pellets which had been disgorged contained the 

 hair, skin, and jaw of a woodmouse, scapular and interscap- 

 ular feathers of a young Flicker, and feathers of a young 

 Wood Thrush. From this evidence I conclude that young 

 birds, at least, are occasionally killed by this almost wholly 

 beneficial Buteo. To the above Ivlr. Benj.T. Gault adds the 

 Blacksnake — one having been killed and cut open by a far- 

 mer's lad at a place he was stopping at in Reynolds county, 

 Missouri, contained the body of one of these woodpeckers. 

 The question as to whether the adults do or do not re- 

 move the excrement of the \'oung. has not been settled. It 

 is probable that they do however, for a time, depending 

 more or less upon the individual. I have found some nests 

 containing young well feathered, which were far from clean- 

 ly; others were as clean as could be. A nest nine feet up 

 in a butternut stub containing four young about two weeks 

 old, was examined last June )9th, at 9 p.m., with the fol- 

 lowing results: The parent was not covering the young. 

 Temperature of interior noticeably warmer; it seemed tome 

 to be at blood heat. The young in two layers but almost 

 equally strong and advanced, if I may except one of the top- 

 most which was able to utter a squeal and jump out and 

 flutter away to the ground; the others had uttered the usu- 

 al feeding clatter drowsily, but became silent almost immedi- 

 ately and allowed me to take them out one by one by wing 

 or beak. The birds were perfectly clean, while the bottom 

 of the nest was somewhat foul. The aggregate contents of 

 the stomachs of these four young is something wonderful: 

 7 cherry stones (cultivated), i large larva, i worm, fragments 

 of many beetles, several green beetles (whole), pieces of 

 grass, weed stems, and stubble, 2 bits of oyster shell, num- 

 bers of tiny bits of stone (gravel), and about 1500 ants — red 

 and black, adult and larva;. All four possess the black 



