CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE 367 
“hitt-hitt” as it chases its mate through the wood. The 
nest is usually in a dead pine or fir, seldom higher than 
twelve feet from the ground. The entrance is round, 
about one and a half inches in diameter, 
and the interior is from eight to thirteen a 
inches deep. From four to seven white 7b 
egos are laid on a thin lining of sawdust Irs 7 
lg 
made by the excavating. Both 
male and female brood during the 
fourteen days required for incuba- 
tion. The young are fed by re- 
gurgitation at first, and afterwards 
upon the large black ants so nu- 
merous in all the dead pine stumps. 
They remain in the nest nearly 
four weeks and, for at least ten 
days after leaving it, are fed and (* 
cared for by both parents, returning 
to the old nursery to sleep at night 
while the adults remain on guard 
outside. 
Dr. Merrill, U. 8. A., has studied 
the habits of this bird thoroughly, 
and written of it as follows: “I have 
rarely heard this Woodpecker ham- 
mer, and even tapping is rather un- 
common. So far as I have observed, 
399. WHITE-HEADED 
W OODPECKER. 
‘* Where the bark is thick- 
est and roughest.”’ 
—and during the winter I watched it carefully, — its 
principal supply of food is obtained in the bark, most of the 
pines having a very rough bark, scaly and deeply fissured. 
