Oct., 1883.] 



AND OOLOCxIST. 



ri 



Hairy Woodpecker. 



{J^ieus vi.llosus.) 



I have heen many years collecting with- 

 out having secured a set of Hairy Wood- 

 peckers' eggs till the present season, when 

 I have taken four complete sets. 



A friend inquired of me several years 

 ago if " the eggs of that Woodpecker 

 which makes such a racket in the woods 

 were desirable." He had observed a nest 

 and the birds were very noisy and he 

 pointed out the Hairy Woodpecker in my 

 collection. "I'll get them for you," said 

 he, " but I want to save the nest for Wrens 

 to build in and will saw off the branch 

 above and below the nest and pour out the 

 eggs carefully." I sought to dissuade him, 

 but he tried it and broke them all but one, 

 the only specimen representing the species 

 till now in my collection. 



The 17th of April last, observing a pair 

 of Nuthatches acting singularly at a wild 

 place in the woods I sat down on a log and 

 watched them. Wliile sitting there a pair 

 of Woodpeckers attracted my attention. 

 They were very noisy, chattering vehe- 

 mently as they slowly followed each other 

 from one tree to another quite near, and 

 in the course of fifteen minutes they moved 

 completely around me back to the jDlace 

 whence they started. Very soon I heard a 

 rapping in that direction and immediately 

 perceived that they were excavating a nest ; 

 a very agreeable discovery to a collector 

 who had a vacancy of that kind in his cabi- 

 net. The tree was an Elm, dead and aboiit 

 eight inches in diameter at the nest, which 

 was about fifteen feet up in the trunk. I 

 I secured the set the 2d of May when in- 

 cubation had just commenced. The num- 

 ber in the set was four, and one of the eggs 

 was very much larger than the others, 

 measuring in 32nds of an inch 33x23, 

 while No. 2 measured only 28 X 22 and No. 

 8, 29x23. No. 4, 28x23.' 



About the 1st of February my attention 

 was attracted by some very singular bird 



notes wliile in another section of woods, 

 and following the sound I found a pair of 

 Hairy Woodjieckers, and their fantastic 

 movements and strange gutteral notes 

 were new and very interesting to me. I 

 watched the place and the birds frequently 

 as spring approached, promising myself a 

 possible set of eggs as the oiatcome of this 

 discovery, and I got them a little later 

 than the set just mentioned. I had lost 

 sight of the birds for some weeks, when 

 one day in the same vicinity I heard the 

 rapping of a Woodpecker's beak, follow- 

 ing the sound, found the bird at work 

 in an old decayed oak about eighteen feet 

 up ; no branches only a stump with the top 

 gone. I prepared a small whip-saw and 

 with it removed a section of the tree be- 

 low the entrance large enough to insert 

 my hand in the hole, and on the 9th of 

 May secured a fine set of four fresh eggs 

 from the nest. Rejilacing the section 

 taken out securely the bird lingered by the 

 nest and twelve days after I found four 

 more eggs in it with incubation already 

 progressing. It quite surprised me that 

 they could replace a set so promptly. 



The same day on which I found the fore- 

 going nest, on my return through another 

 section of woods my attention was attracted 

 by the loud chattering of a Hairy Wood- 

 pecker, and following the sound I per- 

 ceived the bird having a quarrel with some 

 Blue Jays who were rather neighborly, 

 and after a little quiet watching I found 

 she was also engaged in hollowing out a 

 tree. This time it was a Maple in full 

 foliage, and the entrance to the nest was 

 through wood perfectly sound and green 

 for over an inch. The heart of the tree 

 was decayed but it seemed scarcely possi- 

 ble that the bird could have chiseled the 

 entrance through so hard a spot with her 

 little beak. With my little whip-saw I re- 

 moved a section of the tree below the en- 

 trance and found the set incomplete. Re- 

 turning the section to its place and secur- 

 ing it there, I waited a couple of days and 



