CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE 367 



" hitt-hitt " as it chases its mate through the wood. The 

 nest is usually in a dead pine or fir, seldom higher than 

 twelve feet from the ground. The entrance is round, 

 about one and a half inches in diameter, 

 and the interior is from eight to thirteen 

 inches deep. From four to seven white 

 eggs are laid on a thin lining of sawdust 

 made by the excavating. Both 

 male and female brood during the 

 fourteen days required for incuba- 

 tion. The young are fed by re- 

 gurgitation at first, and afterwards 

 upon the large black ants so nu- 

 merous in all the dead pine stumps. 

 They remain in the nest nearly 

 four weeks and, for at least ten 

 days after leaving it, are fed and [) 

 cared for by both parents, returning 

 to the old nursery to sleep at night 

 while the adults remain on guard 

 outside. 



Dr. Merrill, U. S. A., has studied 

 the habits of this bird thoroughly, 

 and written of it as follows : " I have 

 rarely heard this Woodpecker ham- 

 mer, and even tapping is rather un- 

 common. So far as I have observed, 

 — and during the winter I watched it carefully, — its 

 principal supply of food is obtained in the bark, most of the 

 pines having a very rough bark, scaly and deeply fissured. 



399. White-headed 

 Woodpecker. 



'* Where the bark is thick- 

 est and roughest." 



