Vol.X 



1S93 



Brewster, A Brood of Young Flickers. 2 3 C 



made with equal regularity, by way of an orchard which 

 extended down to the landing from the neighboring hillside, 

 and so stealthily that I rarely saw him until he came into the 

 tree, and sometimes not until he appeared at the nest. His bill 

 was always closed up to the moment of contact with that of the 

 young first selected, and I could detect no enlargement of the 

 throat or other evidence that his mouth contained food. In fact 

 it was clear enough that he swallowed all the food obtained dur- 

 ing these trips and afterwards supplied it to the young by a 

 process of regurgitation. What this food consisted of, I can 

 only conjecture, for I did not succeed in finding any of it in the 

 nest or adhering to the bills of the young, and I could not bring 

 myself to kill one of the latter and settle the point in that way. 



On the morning of the 6th I found the young for the first 

 time clinging to the walls of their cell, about midway between 

 the bottom and the top. Later in the day, they showed their 

 heads at the opening when the parent came to feed them, and on 

 the 7th they spent most of their time peeping out over the 

 rim with evident curiosity and interest, and once two climbed 

 quite outside. When a boat appeared, or there was any sudden 

 noise, they would all instantly and silently slip back out of sight. 

 On the 7th and frequently afterwards I heard them tapping 

 impatiently on the interior of the old shell. 



At six o'clock of the evening of the 9th, I looked into the 

 nest and counted all five of the young. They seemed to be fully 

 grown and perfectly feathered. They were colored precisely 

 alike, as far as I could see, and all had the black moustache as 

 extensive, deeply colored and conspicuous, as in mature males of 

 their species. The white tipping of the bill had heen dimin- 

 ishing for several days and on this evening I noticed that two or 

 three birds had almost wholly lost it, while in the others it was 

 confined to the extreme end of the bill. 



Four of the young had left the nest when I next visited it on 

 the forenoon of July 10. The fifth bird was still in the hole at 

 five o'clock that afternoon, but at three p. m. the next day I found 

 him perched on one of the upper branches of the tree, calling 

 k'i-u much in the manner of an old Flicker, but in feebler* tones. 

 This cry was regularly answered by another young bird in 

 the orchard behind, and from at least two places across the river. 



