Vol. XXI 

 igo4 



I Stockard, Woodpeckers and Vultures in Mississippi. 4^7 



than the second did the first may be explained by the fact that no 

 additional deepening of the bvirrow had taken place this time, and 

 the second set had become slightly incubated before it was ob- 

 served. The third set was removed, and on my return June 2, 

 only seven days later, the nest contained a fourth set, consisting 

 of only four eggs. This set was allowed to hatch and the four 

 young woodpeckers were seen in the nest on June 24, when they 

 appeared to be. several days old. The nest had then contained 

 four sets with a total of nineteen eggs within the one season of 

 1900. It appears certain from the following considerations that 

 all nineteen eggs were laid by the same female. The nest tree 

 was rather isolated and there was only one pair of Red-bellied 

 Woodpeckers to be seen in the immediate vicinity during that 

 spring. Also I had seen many of these birds nesting for several 

 years and had not seen one using a second-hand burrow, and feel 

 sure that if they should select one a nest wifh its entrance so 

 mutilated would not be chosen. The most conclusive evidence 

 is that the eggs of the third set had very much thinner shells than 

 those of the other two sets, or than normal eggs of this species. 

 The size and shape of the 'eggs were about the same in all of 

 these sets, though it might have been expected that the later eggs 

 would have been smaller. 



On several occasions two sets have been seen from the same 

 pair during one season, but I have only in the one case followed 

 it out to the extent recorded above. In Mississippi the second 

 set was always placed in the same burrow that had contained the 

 first, though these birds are recorded from different localities by 

 other observers as digging a new burrow for the second set after 

 the first eggs had been removed. 



Colaptes auratus. Flicker. — It is a well known fact that 

 Flickers will continue laying for some time if the eggs are repeat- 

 edly removed from the nest. Thirty-four is the largest number 

 that I have been able to secure from one bird. This seems insig- 

 nificant when compared to the string of eggs obtained from a 

 Flicker by Phillips in 1883 (Auk, IV, p. 346). He succeeded 

 in making his bird lay seventy-one eggs in seventy-three days by 

 starting with two and continually removing one, leaving the other 

 .as a 'nest egs:.' 



