6 



THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



iug its pleasing vivacity, it often ap- 

 pears quite incomplete." 



The Goldfincli nests when most other 

 birds have finished, usually in July. 

 The nest, a beautiful cup shaped struc- 

 ture, composed of flexible plant fibres, 

 moss, bark, and lined with thistle down 

 making a cosy home for these beautiful 

 birds. It is generally placed in trees 

 or bushes, sometimes in the top of 

 thistle plants. The eggs number from 

 three to six, measuring about .65x.52, 

 are of pale bhiish tint, unspotted. 



The birds remain with us through- 

 out the year and a welcome friend they 

 are, but in winter they lose their brill- 

 iant dress. Audubon has well describ- 

 ed their winter dress with few words: 

 " Brownish olive above, without black 

 cap on the head; fore neck and breast 

 grayish-yellow, the rest of the lower 

 parts greyish-white. 



THE DRUMMING OF THE LOGCOCK. 



Ceophloeus Pileatwt. 



JOHN B. LEWIS. 



Dear reader, did you ever listen to 

 the drumming of a Logcock ? If not 

 yoii should have been with me on a 

 bright, warm day last February as I 

 stood on the brink of a cliff overhanging 

 Pilot Creek, looking across the ravine 

 at the opposite slope, where and extend- 

 ed growth of great chestnuts and white 

 oaks formed a congenial breeding and 

 feeding ground for this, our largest 

 wood pecker. 



Every now and then, clear and des- 

 tinct above the rushing of the little 

 stream below, came the long drawn, 



rumbling sound, often alternated with 

 the birds loud, rattling cackle. 



Every one has heard the drumming 

 of some of the smaller wood peckers, 

 and that of the Logcock is the same, 

 but deeper and more powerful in pro- 

 portion to the greater size of the bird. 

 There are two periods of the year when 

 these birds drum; in early spring, 

 during the mating season and late in 

 summer after the young birds have at- 

 tained their full growth. 



The drumming in spring is usually 

 much more loud and vigorous than that 

 heard in the fall. The site generally 

 chosen is a dead, dry, limb in the top 

 of some large chestnut. The firm, light, 

 texture of the weather beaten dead 

 branches so often found in the tops of 

 old specimens of this tree, causes them 

 to give forth a loiid, resonant sound 

 when struck ; and no one is better aware 

 of this fact than the Logcock. These 

 birds often seem to become attached to 

 certain "drumming limbs" and return 

 to them day after day through the 

 whole season. 



There is one such limb on a large 

 chestnut, a quarter of a mile from my 

 home, where one drums almost every 

 bright morning from the middle of 

 February all through March. 



I have often watched him from a 

 distance as the level rays of the morn- 

 ing sun glinted on his crimson crest 

 and jetty back, but so wary are they 

 that I could seldom approach nearer 

 than one hundred yards before he left 

 his lofty music stool, and with long 

 powerful strokes of his black and white 

 wings betook himself to a distant part 

 of the woods. 



