YELLOW HAMMER. 51 



deep and the white eggs are laid on the chips at 

 the bottom. The usual number of eggs is six. 



A gentleman tells me a curious case of miscal- 

 culation on the part of a yellow hammer that built 

 in an old apple-tree near his house. He says the 

 old birds kept bringing food to the nest so long 

 that he thought something must be wrong, and 

 went to investigate. The nest was just within his 

 reach, and he found that, as he had supposed, the 

 birds were more than large enough to fly. In fact 

 they were so large they could not get out of the 

 mouth of the nest, and were actually imprisoned 

 there ! The gentleman got an axe and cut out 

 the opening for them, and the next morning the 

 brood had flown. 



Knowing the habits of the yellow hammer, you 

 wonder why there is no name to credit him with 

 the work he does for us in eating the boring ants 

 that eviscerate our noblest trees ; and you are still 

 more surprised to find no name to stamp him a 

 field and ground woodpecker, because his devo- 

 tion to ant-hills and other ground preserves is one 

 of the characteristics that distinguish him from 

 the other woodpeckers. Possibly the name " wood- 

 pecker lark " may refer to his custom of hunting 

 in the fields. 



