WOODPECKERS. 51 
is generally downward, by an angle of thirty or 
forty degrees, for the distance of six or eight inches, 
and then straight down for ten or twelve more; 
within roomy, capacious, and as smooth as if polished 
by the cabinet-maker; but the entrance is judiciously 
left just so large as to admit the body of the owner. 
During this labour they regularly carry out the chips, 
often strewing them at a distance, to prevent sus- 
picion. This operation sometimes occupies the 
chief part of aweek. The female, before she begins 
to lay, often visits the place, passes out and in, eX- 
amines every part, both of the exterior and interior, 
with great attention, as every prudent tenant of a 
new house ought to do, and at Jength takes complete 
possession. ‘The eggs are generally six, pure white, 
and laid on the smooth bottom of the cavity. 4 
The red-bellied woodpecker (Picus Carolinus) 
also digs a cavity for its nest, but seems anxious to 
procure all possible shelter from the weather by 
selecting the lower side of some lofty branch, that 
makes a considerable angle with the horizon. It | 
prefers, however, the hollow limb of a tree, making 
the excavation twelve or fifteen inches above where 
it becomes solid. The same anxiety for protection 
leads most. of the species to cut out a very narrow 
opening. That of the yellow-bellied woodpecker 
(Picus varius) Wilson describes as almost exactly 
circular, and so small, for the size of the bird, that 
it can creep out and in with difficulty ; but within it 
suddenly widens, descending by a small angle, and 
then running downward about fifteen inches, the 
eggs being laid on the smooth solid wood. This 
plan is also pursued by the red-headed woodpecker 
(Picus erythrocephalust), which is so little afraid of 
man that it not unfrequently breeds in the trees 
growing in the streets of the American cities. Wil- 
son found several of these nests within the bounda- 
* Wilson, Amer. Ornith., i., 154, 
T Ibid.,145-147. 
H | 
