416 



BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



[Yol.Y. 



to examine many nests on account of the superabundance of timber, 

 which increased the ditliculty of search. All those first discovered con- 

 tained young-, although the date of my finding them was some ten days 

 earlier than in the ju'evious season. On April 21 a boy brought me a 

 female of this species, taken on the nest, which contained two eggs, the 

 onl>' fresh ones obtained. These two, with the one obtained in 1877, 

 average .81 by .01. From four to six pure white eggs comx)ose a full 

 clutch. 



Lomit 

 ....do 

 ....do 

 ....do 

 ....do 

 ....do 

 ....do 

 ....do 

 ....do 

 ....do 

 ....do 

 ....do 



April 



A]>ril 



April 



April 



April 



April 



April 



April 



Ai>ril 



May 



May 



May 



92. Centueus aurifrons (Wagl.) Gray. — Yelloic-faced Woodpecker. 



The more abundant of the two prevailing forms of Woodpeckers on 

 the LoAver Eio Grande, and very common at Lomita, and as bold and 

 noisy as the Eedheaded Woodpecker of the North. Although breeding 

 abundantly at this point, so that I might have secured many sets of its 

 eggs had 1 chosen, so great labor and time were necessary to get at them, 

 situated as they often were in the heart of large hard-wood trees, and 

 not very accessible, that I forebore making a large collection, especially 

 as I was crowded w ith rarer si)ecies. 



Tlie first set of eggs taken was a clutch of six fresh ones on April 17, 

 some two weeks earlier than the first set taken in 1877. On April 21 a 

 nest containing one egg, Aj^ril 27 two sets, one of four hard sat upon, 

 another of six, four of which were ready to hatch, and May 1 a set ot 

 five fresh eggs were taken. From four to six eggs is the usual comi>le- 

 ment. The average of eggs taken this year is 1.02 by .74. 



The numerous holes which I observed the previous season in the tele- 

 graph poles, and which I inferred might be nests of Woodpeckers, I 

 found to be excavations made by the birds in search of a large species 

 of borer that works in the dry wood. 



Louiita 

 ....do . 

 ....do . 

 ....do . 

 ....do . 

 ....do . 



April 12 

 April 17 

 April 16 

 April 28 

 May 6 

 May 22 



10. 50 



9. 50 



10. 00 



17. 50 

 16. 50 

 16.50 



,25 

 ,00 

 ,12 



3.50 

 3.00 

 3.12 



