ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 69 



they are intended to accommodate the young after they have left 

 the nest. As an example of exceptional choice of situation, oue 

 nest was found in a perfectly live poplar-tree of large size. The 

 birds had pierced a somewhat irregular hole in the trunk, where a 

 limb had rotted out, and, following the partially decayed wood into 

 the very heart of the tree, had excavated a cavity to the depth of 

 about twelve inches, which, when finished, was surrounded on all 

 sides by healthy wood of at least six inches average thickness. 

 The entrance to this nest was unusually low, being not over eight 

 feet above the water. The average elevation I have found to be 

 at least forty feet, and many nests occur considerably higher. The 

 four sets of eggs taken on the occasion previously referred to are 

 all apparently complete, and vary in number of eggs from five to 

 seven, the set of five being the furthest advanced in incubation. 

 Six are probably laid as a rule. The eggs vary considerably in 

 shape, some being oblong and others decidedly elliptical. They 

 average .85 in length by .60 in breadth. As with all the Wood- 

 peckers, they are pure white, but there is much less of that fine 

 polish than in eggs of the other species that I have examined. 



When fresh, and before being blown, they resemble very closely, 

 both in color and size, average eggs of the Martin (Progne pur- 

 purea). After the young have hatched, the habits of the Yellow- 

 bellied Woodpecker change. From an humble delver after worms 

 and larvae, it rises to the proud independence of a Flycatcher, 

 taking its prey on wing as unerringly as the best marksman of 

 them all. From its perch on the spire of some tall stub it makes 

 a succession of rapid sorties after its abundant victims, and then 

 flies off to its nest with bill and mouth crammed full of insects, 

 principally large Diptera. In this way both parents labor inces- 

 santly to provide for their hungry brood. The young leave the 

 nest in July, and for a long time the brood remains together, being 

 still fed by the parents. They are very playful, sporting about the 

 tree-trunks and chasing one another continually. Both young and 

 old utter most frequently a low snarling cry that bears no very 

 distant resemblance to the mew of the Catbird. The adults have 

 also two other notes, — one, already spoken of, when the opposite 

 sexes meet ; the other a clear, ringing eleur, repeated five or six 

 times in succession, and heard, I think, only in the spring. The 

 habit alluded to in Baird, Brewer, and Bidgway's " Birds of 

 North America" (Vol. II, p. 541), of "drumming" on the tree- 



