54 £be Warbler 



his call-notes, which were at once answered by the female which came from 

 some distance. 



It took Mr. Davey a trifle over one minute to walk up the 58 feet of 

 clean cypress trunk to the hole, adjust his safety belt, and proceed to inves- 

 tigate the contents — two eggs ! My first thought was that the set was still 

 incomplete, but as the male bird was on the nest I thought best to examine 

 the eggs, so Mr. Davey sent down the line and I sent up the pail and the 

 eggs were carefully lowered. A glance at them showed that incubation was 

 well under way so I called, "Come down.'" During the time that Mr. 

 Davey was at the nest both birds remained close by, at times being within 

 ten feet of him ; they kept up their plaintive cry, at times striking a pow- 

 erful blow with the bill. 



This nest was located in a live cypress in the heart of the cypress 

 swamp. Much fallen timber was scattered around and any ground not cover- 

 ed with water was densely covered with myrtle and bay bushes, interlaced 

 with bamboo briar. The nest tree was but 20 yards from that occupied 

 last season. The nest site was not taken. I hoped that if the birds were 

 not too much disturbed they might nest again and in this I was not dis- 

 appointed, as on March 9th I was notified by Mr. Brown that he had again 

 located a new nest in another tree 75 yards from the first. The nest was in 

 a dead cypress stump from which the top had broken off within a year; the 

 nest site was 47 feet from the ground, and 8 feet below the top of the stump, 

 and the nest contained two eggs but slightly incubated. The birds had evi- 

 dently lost little time in excavating a new nest. They had done this, laid 

 and begun sitting all within 20 days. 



This nest site was taken in good condition ; but the first tree having a 

 very heavy top and the birds having left the walls of the nest site so thin 

 the whole thing smashed to pieces when the tree was cut. All measurements 

 were carefully taken before the tree was felled; the nest site was 58 feet up, 

 the trunk 15 inches in diameter at this point. The opening was 6^{ by 3^ 

 inches and 14 inches deep from bottom of opening. The eggs measured 1.46 

 x 1.09 and 1.43 x 1.07 inches. 



The second nest was 47 feet up, trunk 14 inches in diameter, the open- 

 ing 6 by 2>yi inches and 14 inches in depth. The eggs measured 1.43 x 1.10 

 and 1.43 x 1.08 inches, and were deposited on a layer of fine chips. The 

 opening in both nests was uneven and rough, and just inside the hollow was 

 much enlarged, being 9 inches across, and unlike the nests of other Wood- 

 peckers, was smaller at the bottom than at the top. The section of tree that 

 we brought out of the swamp weighed 200 lbs., and the transportation of 

 this over ground that would " bog a shadow " was in itself no small task. 



During the past three years I have had some opportunity of studying 

 the habits of these interesting birds, and I can state some facts that do not 

 agree with other writers any more than does the nesting time between Flor- 



