116 
NESTS AND EGGS OE 
favor of the several actors, the latter become highly elated, and give ex- 
pression to their feelings in the most ridiculous manner. The females now 
become as unwavering and devoted in their fidelity and affection as they 
were before changeable and whimsical. The period of courtship seldom 
exceeds two days at the utmost. While it lasts, the birds make short 
tours around the country, and on their return settle down to the prosy 
realities of wedded life. A suitable spot must be selected for a home. 
Although both birds spend no little time in searching for one, yet the 
matter is generally and wisely left to the judgment of the female. 
They are never known to construct homes for themselves, hut make 
use of hollow trees, Wookpeckers’ holes, and often the old and forsaken 
nests of the common Crow and the Gray Squirrel. A low, flat shelving 
of rock beneath an overhanging bluff, in situations remote from the dwell- 
ings of man, is not unfrequently chosen. But in places immediately 
surrounding him, and even within his precincts, unfinished stone-buildings 
and pigeon-cotes are occupied, the latter much to the dread of their right- 
ful owners, who soon become reconciled to the glaring insult, and live 
on friendly terms with their courageous neighbors. In Germantown, Pa., 
many of these birds are accustomed to deposit their eggs in the holes 
left by the removal of scaflfolding from the walls of unfinished buildings. 
In some instances, they are placed within a slight dej^ression produced 
by the removal of the mortar; hut, generally, a thin covering of leaves 
and grasses serves to relieve the roughness of the cavity. In one case a 
rather dense bedding of moss made a soft and cozy lining. Almost any 
tree that has been pressed into service by the Golden-shafted Wood|Deeker, 
and made to answer as a recej)tacle for its eggs, is utilized by the sj3ecies 
under consideration. In an orchard, the apple is mostly a favorite ; while 
in other situations, the swamp maple and common chestnut are as fre- 
quently occupied. Their height above the ground varies from ten to fifty 
feet. In no cases have we discovered it below this figure, and never 
above it. A nest found April 20th, 1881, near Rowlandville, by Wil- 
liam Wentz, in a decayed chestnut branch, was fifty feet from the ground. 
