NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 211 



of the best known. It seems to enjoy the company of other birds, es- 

 pecially nuthatches, titmice and wrens, in whose society it is gener- 

 ally found, searching the branches of low trees or saplings, the hedges, 

 the brush heaps and fences for insects and their larvae. It is fond of 

 drumming on the stub of a dead limb whose center is hollow, and 

 whose shell is hard and resonant. Upon such places it will drum for 

 an hour at a time, now and then stopping to listen for a response from 

 its mate or of some rival. At all times it is unsuspicious of man, and 

 when engaged in excavating the cavity for its nest it continues its 

 busy chiseling, unheeding his near approach. The nest is construct- 

 ed in the latter part of April, or early in May, and is excavated in the 

 trunk of a small dead tree, often in the dead limb of an apple tree, 

 in a post or rail of a fence, seldom more than twenty feet from the 

 ground, usually between ten and fifteen feet. 



The eggs are four or five, rarely six ; they are pure glossy- 

 white, and nearly elliptical in shape. There is considerable dijffer- 

 ence in the size of the eggs ; a set of four measure, respectively, 

 .75X.62, . 77 X. 62, .73x61, .73x,62; another set, containing four, .84 

 X .58, .78 X .59, .83 X .58, .82 X .56 ; a set of five, .80 x .57, .85 x .60, .84 x 

 .60, .83 X .62, .84 X .63. 



394«. Dryobates pubescens gairdnerii (Aud.) [361a.] 



Gairdner's Woodpecker. 



Hab. Western United States, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, north to British Columbia, 

 outh to New Mexico. 



The western representative or counterpart of the Downy Wood- 

 pecker of the East, resembling it in size, general habits, etc. In many 

 places of the West it is an abundant bird, but is not generally so com- 

 mon as the Downy is in the Eastern States. Mr. Norris has a set of 

 five eggs of this Woodpecker, collected June i, 1876, near Santa Cruz, 

 California. They are glossy-white, and measure .81 x .69, .80X.58, 

 .80X.59, . 77 X. 58, .74X.56. 



395. Dryobates borealis (Vieill) [362.] 



Red-cockaded Woodpecker. 



Hab. Southeastern States, north regularly to North Carolina, irregularly to New Jersey; west to 

 Indian Territory and Eastern Texas. 



The Red-cockaded Woodpecker has a restricted distribution in the 

 Southeastern Atlantic States, and is found regularly as far north as the 

 Carolinas, westward to Indian Territory and Eastern Texas, and only 

 irregularly to New Jersey. Audubon speaks of it in his day as being 

 found abundantly from Texas to New Jersey, and as far inland as 

 Tennessee, and nowhere more numerous than in the pine regions ol 

 Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. He found these birds mated in 



