WOODPECKERS 275 



ant resident, (Gardiner Branch). Knox; resident, (Rackliff). Oxford; 

 common, breeds, (Nash). Penobscot; resident, common, next to the Flicker 

 our commonest Woodpecker, (Knight). Piscataquis; common resident, 

 (Homer). Sagadahoc; common fall and spring, (Spinney). Somerset; 

 common resident, (Morrell). Waldo; common resident, (Knight). Wash- 

 ington; abundant, (Boardman;. York; quite common, (Adams). 



A common and generally distributed resident species, being 

 the little Woodpecker most often seen, and unlike the Hairy 

 Woodpecker this species rather prefers to nest in an orchard 

 or elsewhere near to human habitations although also found 

 along the rivers and lakes and in the swampy tracts so full of 

 stubs. 



The nest is always placed in a hole in some tree or stub, 

 being excavated by the birds themselves. Dead limbs of apple 

 trees, dead limbs or stubs of other trees and similar situations 

 are the nesting sites, the hole being usually ten or twelve feet 

 from the ground. Three to six, generally four or five eggs 

 are laid ; usually about the last of May. 



On May 27, 1896, a nest was found fifteen feet up in a dead, 

 rotten maple stub overhanging the Stillwater River at Orono. 

 The diameter of the entrance was an inch, the diameter of the 

 vertical shaft two and a half inches and the depth of the hole 

 six inches. The eggs were laid on a bed of fine chips at the 

 bottom. These eggs measure 0.78 x 0.57, 0.81 x 0.61, 0.80 

 X 0.60, 0.83 x 0.61, 0.81 x 0.60. The eggs are always pure 

 glossy white, unspotted. This same stub had had a nest of the 

 species for several previous years, a new hole being excavated 

 each season. 



Their call to each other is a jerky "jip-yip-yip" uttered in 

 a slightly squeaky tone, and they also "drum," on the resonant 

 wood, making a quicker less loud "tattoo" than the Hairy 

 Woodpecker. 



Their food is almost entirely of an insect nature and practi- 

 cally identical with that of the Hairy Woodpecker, though 

 I have fancied that in winter they partook more exclusively of 

 eggs of insects and know for a fact that they eat large quantities 



