Birds of Indiana. 767 



primahes reaching beyond the end of tail. Immature. — Similar, but 

 skin of head and neck black, and more or less covered with whitish 

 down. 



Length, 26.00-32.00; extent, about 6 feet; wing, 20.00-23.00 

 (inches); tail, 11.00-12.00; culmen, 1.00; tarsus, 2.25-2.30. 



Eange. — America, from Patagonia to New Jersey, Ontario, south- 

 ern Michigan, noi'thern Indiana. Casually to Maine, the Saskatche- 

 wan, and British Columbia. Winters from southern Indiana south- 

 ward. 



Nest, in hollow trees and logs, and in cavities in rocks, and on 

 ground. Eggs, 2, rarely 1 or 3; white or creamy- white, blotched, 

 smeared or spotted with irregular markings of various shades of brown 

 and lavender; 2.74 by 1.89. 



Resident in southern Indiana, at least as far north as Vincennes and 

 the lower Whitewater Valley. Some years they remain through the 

 winter as far north as Brookville. They generally appear north to the 

 center of the State in February or early March. Brown County, 

 1893, February 22 (Kindle); 1895, February 23; 1897, February 13 

 (Bamett); Wayne County, 1895, March 4 (Eatliff); 1897, March 22 

 (lladley); Carroir County, March 16, 1884; March 12, 1885 (Ever- 

 mann). Just as they gradually fade away in the fall, so they almost 

 imperceptibly reappear in spring. The northern part of the State 

 notes their return within the latter half of March, and they reach the 

 southern shore of Lake Erie by early April — Sandusky, 0., March 29, 

 1896; April 3, 1897 (Moseley) — and southeastern portion of Michigan, 

 where it is rare, the latter part of April — (Petersburg, April 27, 1897; 

 Trombley). 



Mr. E. W. Nelson noted it as irregular and rare in Cook County, 111. 

 (Bull. Essex Inst., p. 120). Mr. J. G. Parker, Jr., tells me he has 

 never seen it in that county, but that it i^ often observed at Kouts, 

 Ind., thirty miles away. Plenty at "Crane Town," Jasper County, in 

 April, 1887 (Trouslot). In southwestern Michigan it is also very rare. 

 The Kankakee River seems to be the limit of its range, in northwest 

 Indiana, and through the Wabash Valley it reaches the northeastern 

 part of the State and adjacent portions of Michigan. It breeds 

 throughout its summer range. 



They mate soon after arrival, from the middle of March, in the 

 southern counties. Eggs are found from April 25 through May. Most 

 of them are laid before the middle of May, with us. They lay in a 

 hollow tree or snag, in a prostrate hollow log, on the ground, beside a 

 fallen tree, with no attempt to make a nest. In the Whitewater 

 \'alley they nest indiscriminately along the streams, on wooded hillsides 



