18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



until in March of that year. As we watched the female came 

 back and gave a loud rolling call perhaps forty or fifty times 

 while the call of the male was repeated louder and fiercer and 

 shriller than the female. The alarm note of the female was 

 "Yuk, yuk". Once she flew over our heads and struck the 

 tree with a smack that shook the stub and went up to the nest 

 and flew away again repeating her "Yuk, yuk" call, always 

 answered by the male. Harlow once brought the male close to 

 us by imitating its call and another time the female by pound- 

 ing on the tree. The head looked something like that of a 

 Horned Grebe and the bird something like a Crow when it flies. 

 Four times she came back, alighted on the tree and stood at the 

 hole for nearly five minutes, sticking her head in, wagging it 

 first from one side and then the other, but not seeming to dare 

 go in after the first time. She showed so much anxiety that 

 Harlow decided to climb the tree and take his chances on find- 

 ing the set complete. The female flew away with a perfect 

 volley of angry "yuks" while we stood below and called up 

 various useful suggestions and warnings. Arrived at the nest- 

 ing-hole he first stuffed a handkerchief down the hole to shield 

 the eggs from flying chips and then locating the nest's direc- 

 tion, chopped into the tree. As the nest ran within two inches 

 of the outer bark he uncovered the eggs almost instantly. 

 There were four of them, glossy, white, sharp-pointed, each one 

 about half again as large as that of a Flicker, a full clutch 

 about four days incubated. Harlow then decided to investigate 

 the second nest although he did not believe that the bird had 

 laid a full set there. This time when he came to the stub the 

 bird did not come out until he struck the tree twice. Then he 

 could hear her hopping up and an enormous beak was thrust 

 out of the hole and the female flew out, giving the wild nesting- 

 call twice, always with the peculiar quirk at the finish. Be- 

 sides myself there were in the party Burleigh who is a most in- 

 defatigable collector and a tireless climber and walker. He 

 went to the front in France with a bird-book and field-glasses 

 concealed in his uniform and was far more interested in Night- 

 ingales and Moor-hens than in the Boche. The other member 

 of the party was McGrew who always carried about him the 



