THE OOLOGLST. 



147 



oggs of the Red Headed Woixlpecker, 

 nest in an old oak riglit in the heart of 

 the city. This set deserves special 

 mention as it is rather a peculiar one. 



Eggs No. 1 and 2 are perfectly fresh 

 and have that unmistakable pinkish 

 tinge of newness. 



No. 3 and 4 are dark and on blowing 

 I find incubation advanced in one and 

 in the other the young bird was almost 

 ready to break its shell. 



No. 5 however, is the queerest of the 

 lot, insomuch as it contains — nothing. 

 An egg laid, containing notliing but air 

 and about two grains (by weight) of 

 yolk. My boy exclaimed on picking it 

 up, "humph, here's an egg laid already 

 blown." 



No. 2 was unusually large, measuring 

 1.06i X .76. Tlie shell was rough and 

 had little ))unehes of shelly matter 

 scattered over the surface and it was 

 only about one-half tilled. With all, it 

 was the most remarkable set I have 

 ever taken. (Note: In 1888, I col- 

 lected a set of one egg out of another 

 tree near this one. There was but the 

 one egg which measured .80 x.G2.) 



June 16th. To-day, I collected a tine 

 set of five eggs of the Great Crested 

 Flycatcher, nest in a round trough, 

 tlirough which wires \tsed to run dur- 

 ing shooting matches, composed of 

 ]:)iue straw, leaves, seeds, bits of rope 

 and fur; also a little cotton and hair 

 and the inevitable snake skin, "Par. 

 necessity." 



S. A. Taft, 

 Aiken, S. C. 



A Flicker Moving its Household Effects. 



On the morning of May 19, 1890, I 

 started . for what the boys, around 

 where I live call the country, after 

 reaching a clump of trees some two or 

 three miles from the city, I sat down to 

 rest, at the foot of a large yellow birch. 

 I had not been sitting theie verj- long 

 before I ' was startled from my medita- 

 tions by the cry of a Yellow Hammer 



directly above me, and on looking up I 

 saw the old fellow about to enter a hole 

 in the decayed terminal branch of the 

 birch . 



Soon after he reappeared with what I 

 at first supposed to be a chip, in his 

 beak. This supposed chip I scjon per- 

 ceived to be an egg, which he lield 

 lengthwise. After looking around, he 

 flew to a tree about a fourth of a mile 

 distant. I being determined to rescue 

 the remaining eggs, immediately' 

 climbed the tree, only to find that all 

 the eggs had been removed. After de- 

 scending I started for the other tree, 

 upon whose top-most branches I could 

 see the parent Flickers. On reaching 

 it I perceived that the reward of pos- 

 sibly a half dozen of eggs would not 

 warrant the task of climbing, as the 

 tree was barren of limbs for the greater 

 portion of its heighth. 



C. RUI'KECHT. 



Cleveland, O. 



Hairy Woodpecker and Potato Bugs. 



Last summer, potato ))ugs covered 

 every patch of potatoes in Marathon 

 coiinty, (l)eing my home county,) Wis. 

 One of my friends here, found his 

 patch an exception, and therefore took 

 l^ains to find the reason, and observed 

 a tlairy Woodpecker, making frequent 

 visits to the potato tield and going 

 from there to a large pine stub a little 

 distance away. 



After obserA'ing tliis for about six 

 weeks, he made a visit to the pine stub 

 and found, on inspection, a large hole 

 in its side about fifteen feet up. He 

 took his axe and cut down the stub, 

 split it open, and found inside, over 

 two Ijushels of bugs. All had then- 

 heads off and bodies intact. Now why 

 did the Woodpecker carry the bugs 

 whole to the tree and only bite off and 

 eat the heads, which could have been 

 done in the potato field? 



Y. A. Aldekson, 

 Marathon Co., Wis. 



