BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. Desi 
general thing it is located on the southerly side and directly 
underneath a large limb, but not invariably so. Still I have 
never yet met with an instance of its being on the north side 
of the tree. 
They seem to manifest no choice between the borders, or the 
interior of the forests, only that the tree chosen more com- 
monly is one of considerable size. Both sexes participate in 
the excavation of the nest, which in a green ora very dry tree, 
is sometimes a tedious and prolonged undertaking. The work- 
manship in such cases is highly artistic, looking more as if a 
carpenter of a higher order and genus, with modern tools, had 
performed it. They lay four pure-white eggs. When the young 
come out, and have become considerably grown, they creep 
out onto the outside of the tree and larger branches daily until 
strong enough to fly, after which the whole family hunt to- 
gether until about the 10th of October, when they move off 
southward to winter. That they sometimes rear a second 
brood in the same season seems almost certain, as I have found 
young birds as late as the fifth of October, and Mr. M. W. Van- 
denburg, of Fort Edward, N. Y., who was visiting this city in 
1870, reported a young bird of this species on the 17th of that 
month. But this is certainly very exceptional. 
Mr. Lewis found them one of the most common woodpeckers 
of Becker and Cass counties, breeding in June. Mr. Washburn 
reported them as common at Georgetown, about the first of 
August. Dr. Hvoslef mentions them as at Lanesboro, but does 
not speak of their relative frequency. Prof. Herrick found 
them at Lake Shetak, and Mr. Treganowan at Big Stone. But 
I was a little surprised that Mr. U. S. Grant, assistant of Prof. 
Winchell on the geological survey, did not find them in either 
St. Louis, Lake or Cook counties, in the northeastern portion 
of the state. His observations embraced the month of August, 
when if the species is represented there at all, they certainly 
must have fallen under his notice, as they were then moving 
about supposably in family groups of five or six, embracing 
parents and young. 
Becker and Cass counties are nearly as far north as those 
where Mr. Grant made his valuable observations, so that the 
question of mere latitude gives no explanation for their absence. 
Besides, it is well known that ‘‘Sir John Richardson found it 
common in the fur countries,” (N. A. Birds, p. 540,) very much 
further to the north, Kennicott makes no mention of them at 
the Lake of the Woods, although it was as late, when he was 
there, as the bird has been reported in the Saskatchewan. 
16z 
