^i&rH Brewster , A Brood &f Young Flickers. 23 I 



A BROOD OF YOUNG FLICKERS {COLAPTES 

 AURATUS) AND HOW THEY WERE FED. 



BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 



Late in May, 1S92, I noticed a Flicker's hole, then apparently 

 completed, in a very rotten stump covered externally with gray 

 lichens and a species of woody fungus. This stump was one of 

 seven nearly upright but diverging stems, all evidently sprouts 

 from the same roots and six still living. The tree, an ancient 

 white maple, stood on the bank of Concord River, within a few 

 yards of a boat landing. Besides the Flicker's hole the old stump 

 contained at this time two other inhabited nests ; a Downy Wood- 

 pecker's near the top, and a little lower down a Bluebird's. The 

 Flicker's nest was still lower — about ten feet above the ground. 



The Bluebirds first, and shortly afterwards the Downy Wood- 

 peckers, reared and took away their young, after which a pair of 

 House Sparrows entered into possession of the hole which the 

 Downies had vacated. Scarcely had the female Sparrow laid 

 her eggs, when a boy, attempting to climb the stump, broke it off 

 squarely at the entrance hole of the Flicker's nest. For two 

 weeks or more previous to this, I had frequently started one or 

 other of the Flickers from the nest in passing it on my way 

 to the landing; but I had learned little regarding them beyond 

 the fact that their hearing was so keen that I could never quite 

 reach the tree without alarming them, and that during this 

 period (when, as will presently appear, incubation must have 

 been constantly going on) they were frequently at work pecking 

 at the inside of the trunk. 



The accident to the stump happened June 23, at about noon. 

 An hour later I examined the nest, which was now entirely open 

 at the top. In the bottom lay five young Flickers, about as large 

 as plucked House Sparrows and perfectly naked. Their eyes 

 were tightly closed and I judged them to be less than a week old. 

 They were writhing and shivering pitifully, the air being cool 

 and damp at the time. I watched the nest for nearly an hour, 

 but saw nothing of the parent birds. As a cold rain storm 

 began soon after and lasted through the following night I con- 



