464 Stockard, Woodpeckers and Vultures in Alississippi. fo t 



to the former and completed it. Of course it may be that the first 

 attempt was a definite site and they only tapped about in other 

 places to feed. But it is very certain that they did no work on 

 the nest hole for a space of several days after it had been worked 

 for two or three days continuously. It was a rather difficult 

 matter also to decide when the burrow was complete. In some 

 cases this seemed to be when laying began. Again nests were 

 found complete, and one could be certain that it was not worked 

 further, though laying did not begin for an entire week. 



The birds were very shy and would usually leave the nest the 

 moment the tree was rapped with the hand or a stick. The 

 birds flew completely out of sight into the woods not to appear 

 again until the intruder was well away from the nest tree. Only 

 one pair was observed that had their nest in a dead tree which 

 stood in an open field at least sixty or seventy yards from the 

 wood. The female in this case flew about the nest tree and lit 

 once on the upper part and again just over the nest hole while a 

 person was in the act of climbing the tree. This was by far the 

 most daring bird seen and, as mentioned above, because of the 

 isolation of the tree, her burrow was unusually exposed for this 

 species. 



In the spring of igoi my first observations were made in 

 Adams County. Four pairs were located in February just as 

 they were selecting nesting sites. It was then expected that they 

 would continue laying after the first set was removed, as most 

 other members of the family will do. It was also thought that 

 some sets would contain five or six eggs, as many writers claim 

 for this bird. The first nest, a burrow twenty-five feet from the 

 ground in an old sycamore stump, contained one egg on March 

 22 ; March 26 it contained three, and on April i, when the set 

 was removed, it consisted of four slightly incubated eggs. The 

 burrow was left undisturbed until May 14, when it was also taken 

 by being sawed off from above and below the cavity. The bird 

 had undoubtedly deserted it as soon as she found her eggs gone. 

 The pair staid in this wood for the remainder of the season but 

 did not attempt to construct a second burrow. 



The next set was taken April 7 and contained only three eggs 

 that had been incubated about one week. This nest, being rather 



