Plate LXIV. 



* 



Fig, h PIOUS VILLOSUS-Hairy Woodpecker. 



The Hairy Woodpecker is not a very common summer resident, though at times in late spring it 

 is quite numerous. In the fall also it is more plentiful than in summer, and even in the coldest winter 

 weather a few are usually to be seen about orchards or town trees. The nest is made in May or early 

 in June, and but a single brood is generally reai'ed during the season. 



LOCALITY: 



The nest of this species is commonly built in an orchard or about the edge of woods, but sometimes 

 it is found in a shade tree in an open field or near a farm-house, or even in a gate-post or fence-post- 

 Being less shy than others of the family a pair of these birds occasionally come into a large town and 

 go to house-keeping in some dead branch of a tree growing on the most frequented thoroughfare. The 

 Downy Woodpecker also comes into town to nest, but not as frequently as the Hairy Woodpecker 

 considering the relative abundance of the two. 



POSITION: 



The nest consists of an excavation in wood, generally, if not always dead wood, at various heights 

 from the ground according to the locality. It may be in the perpendicular trunk of a tree or in a 

 horizontally inclined limb. If in the latter situation, the entrance is on the under side of the branch. 

 The usual distance from the ground is between ten and twenty feet, but it often is much lower, or even 

 in the topmost branch of suitable size of the tallest forest tree. 



MATEEIALS : 



No materials are carried into the cavity, the fine chips made during the excavating being considered 

 sufficiently soft for the eggs to rest upon. The same general plan of carpenter work is adopted by this 

 Woodpecker as by the Downy Woodpecker, heretofore described, but upon a larger scale. The diameter 

 of the entrance is about two inches. This extends horizontally four to eight inches, and then turns nearly 

 at right angles and is enlarged to two and one-half to three inches in diameter and continues to the 

 depth of ten to twenty inches. Sometimes, though rarely, a natural cavity is chosen for the home, in 

 this case the birds are not particular about proportions. 



EGGS: 



The complement of eggs varies from four to six, five is probably the most frequent number. They 

 are pure, pearly white, like all eggs of the family, and about the same shape. They measure 

 from .87 to 1.05 in long-diameter, and from .68 to .75 in short-diameter. A common size is about 

 .69 x 1.00 inch. 



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