Notes on the Birds. Sail! 
A sight with which every country boy or girl is familiar is that of yellow- 
hammers on the ground in the meadows, pastures and lawns, hunting for 
large white grubs and other insect larvee which are so destructive to the 
lawns. I remember one fall when the large white grubs were so abundant 
in a certain yard that the sod could be pulled up and rolled back like a 
carpet, leaving hundreds of grubs exposed; and these attracted several 
yellowhammers which feasted upon them. 
The flickers nest in holes which they dig in dead trees or limbs. The 
nesting season in Vigo County begins late in April. The eggs, five to eight 
in number, are a crystalline white. Sometimes the flicker can be induced 
to lay a large number of eggs. On May 4, 1885, I found a nest in a hole in 
a large buckeye tree in the Dr. Armstrong pasture in Camden. The nest 
contained two eggs. one of which I took. leaving the other as a nest egg. 
This was repeated daily until June 22, when some one destroyed the nest. 
In all 37 eggs were laid by the bird from May 3 to June 22. On 14 of the 
51 days no egg was laid. How many more I would have gotten if the nest 
had not been destroyed will never be known. The most remarkable record 
of the laying capacity of the Flicker has been furnished by Charles L. Phil- 
lips of Taunton, Massachusetts. In a period of 73 days, he obtained 71 eggs. 
Carroll County: May 8, 1883. two fresh eggs in hole in dead elm snag in 
Stockton’s thicket in which I found a nest with six young saw-whet owls. 
Miss Evermann contributes the following notes: October 7, 1906. one 
seen in maple tree near house; 2Sth, several seen and heard in woods; 
November 30, one heard near house and its note was ‘‘wiechen” which Dr. 
Chapman says he does not remember hearing a Flicker utter when alone. 
January 25, 1908, three or four seen in the woods; 19th, one seen in tree 
near house, only one seen away from the woods this winter. 
Monroe County: January 12, 1883, two noted near Bloomington. 
104. AN?TROSTOMUS VOCIFERUS VOCIFERUS (Wilson). WIIIP-POOR-WILL. (417) 
Not uncommon summer resident. arriving in the last half of April and 
remaining until in September. 
During quiet evenings in spring and early summer the interesting call of 
this strange bird may be heard, most commonly in or at the edge of heavy 
woods, especially hillside. It repeats the syllables awhip-poor-will, in rapid 
succession and so many times without a break. that it would become mon- 
otonous were it not so strange, so weird. 
Carroll County: September, 1877, specimen collected; May 8, 1884, first 
heard this evening near the Evans schoolhouse in Tippecanoe Township, 
but others had heard it May 4; April 22, 1885, first of season heard in even- 
ing near Yeoman: heard again next evening near Joseph Trent’s east of 
Camden. Charles Metsker heard one near Yeoman, April 21. I never found 
a nest of the Whip-poor-will. 
Vigo County: Noted April 41, 1888, and May 1, 1889. 
105. CHORDEILES VIRGINIANUS VIRGINIANUS (Gmelin). NIGHTHAWK. (420) 
The Nighthawk or Builbat is a common spring and fall migrant. and pos- 
sibly a rare summer resident. Of this last I am not sure, as I have 
