WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 189 
identical with the Eastern species. The nest is a hole 
eighteen or twenty inches deep and four inches wide at 
the bottom, with an entrance two inches in diameter at 
the top. It is made in old stumps or dead trees, gate- 
posts, nooks and crannies in deserted buildings, and 
sometimes in banks of earth. Both male and female 
birds share in the excavation, working in turns of about 
twenty minutes each. The site having been chosen, the 
male clings to the surface and marks with his bill a more 
or less regular circle in a series of dots, then begins ex- 
cavating inside this area, using his bill, not with a side- 
wise twist, as do many of the woodpecker family, but 
striking downwards and prying off the chips as with 
a pickaxe. When his mate has rested and wishes to 
share in the labor, she calls from a near-by tree and he 
instantly quits his task. In a few moments, before one 
has realized how or whence she came, the female has 
taken his place and the chips are flying merrily. As 
a rule, the birds work only early in the morning and late 
in the afternoon, taking from ten to fourteen days to 
finish the excavation. By the middle of May there have 
been laid seven or eight beautiful, glossy-white eggs, 
having a pearly lustre, and so transparent that when 
fresh the yolks show through the shell. As incubation 
advances, the shells become more opaque, until, when 
ready to hatch, they have a limy ring around the middle, 
showing where the shell will part. In fifteen days 
appear the most grotesque of all bird babies, unless it be 
those of the pileated woodpecker or of the cormorant. 
Their bodies are the shape, size, and color of a pink rub- 
