THE O.: & O. SEMI-ANNUAL. 15 
them, consisting of a small amount of dried grass, on which the 
egg is laid. 
When I took the boat and went aboard I was well satisfied for 
the time I had spent. 
I found on blowing my specimens that they were all the way 
from fresh eggs to those that were badly incubated, but by careful 
blowing, and with the help of the embryo hook, I was able to 
save most of them. - 
I hope later to give some experiences I had, on the same trip, 
further down the coast, among the Gulls. 
NESTING OF THE WILLIAMSON’S SAPSUCKER. 
Ss ‘phyrapicus Thyrotdeus. 
BY WM. G. SMITH, LOVELAND, COLORADO. 
As but little is generally known of the nesting of this species, 
I thought a few lines on the subject would be interesting and 
acceptable to the numerous readers of the O.& O. SEMI-ANNUAL. 
Although among the rarest of the Rocky Mountain P7cadaes, 
owing to its aspirations for high altitudes, it issnot so common as 
it appears to be, and moreover it is a very shy and quiet bird. I 
have never heard it make but a faint chirp and only then when in 
flying from tree to tree ; but his unmistakable noise when at work 
divulges its presence to the initiated. He does but very little tap- 
ping but makes a succession of burr—ing sounds, and generally 
in an old dead tree, which. may be heard at a long distance, but 
the direction is not so easily ascertained, as the vibrations from 
hill to hill-are very deceiving, and I am not the only one that has 
been led in an exactly opposite direction, to find out your error 
after a half-mile climb, that the bird is on ‘the hill you have just 
left. 
