June, 1886.] 
one, and three feet to the left of it. Said I to my- 
self, here is a last year’s nest, and the thought 
came to me, do not some of our feathered friends 
return to their old nesting places year after year ? 
This seemed to be evidence of it, and when I took 
the two nests off the vines, why may there not be 
more evidence of their return to ‘Rufous’ Bower” ? 
As I looked about through the vines, sure enough 
up to the right, a little higher, and four feet or 
more, could be seen a rather flattened ball of moss 
not looking much likea nest. It was on a dead 
vine, and after a long reach and stretching I had 
the third nest in my hands. 
I think now I have the proof before me, in these 
three nests, of at least the hummers returning to 
the same place to breed year after year, when not 
disturbed by small boys and wild animals. This 
being a quiet nook, free from noise and nest rob- 
bers, they came again and again to bring up their 
young. I will try to give some idea of these nests 
as they lay before me. No. 1, with the fresh eggs, 
was placed at the intersection of a dead and alive 
vine, about seven feet from the ground and about 
four feet from where I stood, in front of the nest 
on the rocks. It is composed wholly of willow 
cotton on the inside; outside green moss evenly 
put on, and well fastened with spider webs. The 
usual gray lichens are put here and there over the 
sides, though not so much as on the Anna’s Hum- 
mingbirds’ nests, and if anything, more than on 
the Allen’s Hummingbirds’ nests. 
A question here arises: Why do all birds that 
_use lichens to adorn their nest put the gray side 
outwards instead of the dark side, unless to pro- 
tect their home from being found and destroyed 
by men and animals? The nest with plenty of 
gray color makes it Jook more like the limb it may 
be on. We see in the nest of the Blue-gray Gnat- 
catcher covered over completely by lichens, that 
it is almost impossible to recognize it until the 
bird is near it, or before one’s eyes. Some the 
Creepers, or ‘‘Honey Eaters” of Australia, are ex- 
perts at making their nests so nearly like the gum 
tree limbs that they are on, by placing the fine 
threads of the bark up and down the nest, so 
naturalists have told me, who have hunted for 
them, they found it next to impossible to see 
them, even though the hand may be directly over 
it. The Allwise has given to all his creatures 
some means of protection of their own, the weaker 
from the stronger. 
I find a nest of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, lately 
received from London, Canada, is so well covered 
with lichens, even running over the edge into the 
nest, that not a space of the nest proper shows. 
All are put on with the light gray side showing 
outwards. The Wood Pewees’ nests, though not 
AND OOLOGIST. 
87 
so well covered, are the same. Some of the nests 
of the western species that I have seen are more 
so than its eastern brother. Even the Yellow- 
throated Vireo uses a great deal of the lichens to 
adorn its nest. One that I have before me now is 
as beautiful a piece of bird architecture as I have 
ever seen. A great many large pieces of lichens 
are worked in through the nest, with empty co- 
coons of insects. 
Now to go back to ‘‘Rufous.” I have described 
nest No. 1. No. 2 was placed on a sinzle vine ata 
fork where the leaf stem branched out. It was 
about four fect from No. 1, and the same distance 
from the ground. No. 2 was much shrunk and 
dry, only being two-thirds as large as the fresh 
nest. It shows only a bunch or ball of dry green 
moss and a few dead brown lichens on it. 
No. 3 was placed in the same position on a 
vine as No. 2; it is more flat in character. The 
moss had grown over the top, giving no idea of a 
nest, but the general mass, with the few litchens, 
showed its resemblance to the Hummer’s nest. I 
prize these three little nests as showing the love 
of birds for their old home. The Rufous is not so 
abundant breeding here as the Anna’s or Allen’s. 
My records since 1880 show the Rufous’ nest de- 
scribed to be the earliest taken or noticed by 
me here. 
I may as well go back a little to the Western 
Red-tail, spoken of in the beginning of this article. 
The nest I was after is placed on top of a fifty 
foot derrick pole. The pair have raised a brood 
there every year since 1882, to my knowledge, on 
this odd nesting site. They have eggs ready for 
incubation by the first of March each year. The 
nest is solidly built of large sticks and twigs, lined 
with fresh live oak jeaves and tufts of dry grass 
every season. Four wire cable guys extend out 
from the top, under the nest, and run down to 
fastenings in the sand-stone rocks lying about. 

Breeding of the Hairy Woodpecker 
in Southern Massachusetts. 

The Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus) is 
not. ranked as a common breeder in this part of 
New England, and two authentic instances may 
be worthy of record. May 19, 1885, a nest was 
found by myself, excavated in the trunk of an old 
decayed apple tree. It contained four eggs, 
much advanced in incubation, but which were 
preserved in good condition. During a recent 
visit of several members of the Bristol County 
Ornithological Club to Plymouth County, one of 
the number, Mr. Charles H. Andros, found a 
nest of the Hairy Woodpecker in a similar posi- 
tion as the first mentioned incident. F. H.C. 
