320 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
then as the ants come swarming out he dispatches them till his 
appetite is satisfied. Afterwards he comes again and again to the 
hill till it is completely depopulated. (Zhompson-Seton.) 1 
found a nest of this woodpecker, June 8th, 1882, at Bedford, Que., 
in the trunk of an old beech tree, containing two younglings, five 
eggs incubated and one egg quite fresh ; also another nest in the 
decayed trunk of a beech tree in the woods below Hochelaga, 
June 3, 1883, containing four eggs, and in the same tree two eggs; 
May alist, 1887, another nest, with one egg, in a hole in the dead 
limb of atree on the spur of Mount Royal. The flicker’s nest can 
often be discovered by the quantity of chips strewn over the 
ground under the tree, from the hole they have been excavating 
init. (Wintle.) One of these birds has nested in a telegraph 
post in front of my house at Kew Beach, Toronto, for the past 
five summers and has never yet succeeded in hatching its eggs on 
account of its nest being robbed by boys. As many as 40 eggs 
have been taken from this nest in one season; as fast as the eggs 
are taken the bird lays another lot and in spite of this persecution 
returns every spring to its old home. Higher up in the same 
telegraph post a pair of tree swallows nest annually and succeed 
in hatching out their brood as the hole is too small for the boys 
to get their hands into. (W. Raime.) Nests taken at Ottawa are 
in holes in stubs or broken trees. Eggs five to seven, pure white, 
laid on a bed of small chips and dust. (G. A. White.) First seen 
in 1892 at Indian Head, Assa., April 19th. After this they became 
common and were nesting by May oth, one shot at this date had 
its stomach full of ants. First seen in 1894 at Medicine Hat, 
Assa., on April 12th. After that they became common and could 
scarcely be distinguished from the form I call the hybrid flicker. 
Both forms were breeding. Later this species was found at Crane 
Lake and very common in the timber at the east end of the 
Cypress Hills. In May, 1895, it was found breeding with the 
hydrid form at Old Wives’ Creek and the eggs of each taken. 
Both nests were in holes of Acer Negundo. \t was also found at 
Wood Mountain and along Frenchman’s River in the Cypress 
Hills. Common and breeding at Banff, Rocky Mountains, in 
1891. Met with at Revelstoke in 1890 in company with hybrids 
and the red-shafted flicker. (Macoun.) A very common summer 
visitant. Found everywhere. It is plentiful in the Magdalen 
Islands where its former nest-holes are sometimes occupied by the 
small owls that breed there. Once in the county of Renfrew I 
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