146 m LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS 



other species of ants, are greedily eaten. A certain peculiar- 

 ity, which we witnessed during the feeding process, deserves 

 a brief but cursory notice. After making a circuit of the 

 trunk, when a place was observed which apparently gave 

 indications of the presence of a grub, the bird would make 

 a quick yet careful survey, then after a few loud and ringing 

 taps with the bill, would turn one ear, then the other, in t In- 

 direction of the sounds, as if in the attitude of listening. If 

 a favorable response from beneath was received, the victim 

 was soon dislodged from its secret home, and speedily dis- 

 patched. On the contrary, if no sound was returned, the 

 bird would continue his diligent search. 



There is no reason to believe that these birds remain with 

 us to breed. Their absence is always noticed about the last 

 of April, and, sometimes, not before the first week of May, 

 when the season is unusually backward. Audubon was un- 

 able to meet with its nest in Louisiana or South Carolina, 

 and rarely in Kentucky ; but gives its breeding limits from 

 Maryland to Nova Scotia. In Pennsylvania, he had found 

 its nest in orchards, where it was generally placed at a short 

 distance from the union of a branch with the trunk. The 

 hole is said to be bored in the usual fashion of Woodpeckers. 

 Wilson says the excavation is made in the lower side 

 of a high branch that makes a large angle with the horizon ; 

 it is bored into solid wood, or more frequently in a hollow 

 limb at a point about fifteen inches above where it becomes 

 solid. This cavity is circular, and is the result of the com- 

 bined labor of the sexes. Building operations ordinarily 

 commence in April. It possibly breeds in Western Massa- 

 chusetts, as an individual was seen by Mr. Allen as late as 

 the i3th of May, 1863 ; and also in Western Connecticut, as 

 individuals were obtained there by Prof. Emmons during the 

 breeding-period. 



The eggs, according to Mr. Audubon, are seldom more 

 than four in number, elliptical in outline, smooth, and of a 

 pure translucent white. They measure 1.06 by .75 of an 



