WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 189 



identical with the Eastern species. The nest is a hole 

 eighteen or twenty inches deep and four inches wide at 

 the bottom, with an entrance two inches in diameter at 

 the top. It is made in old stumps or dead trees, gate- 

 posts, nooks and crannies in deserted buildings, and 

 sometimes in banks of earth. Both male and female 

 birds share in the excavation, working in turns of about 

 twenty minutes each. The site having been chosen, the 

 male clings to the surface and marks with his bill a more 

 or less regular circle in a series of dots, then begins ex- 

 cavating inside this area, using his bill, not with a side- 

 wise twist, as do many of the woodpecker family, but 

 striking downwards and prying off the chips as with 

 a pickaxe. When his mate has rested and wishes to 

 share in the labor, she calls from a near-by tree and he 

 instantly quits his task. In a few moments, before one 

 has realized how or whence she came, the female has 

 taken his place and the chips are flying merrily. As 

 a rule, the birds work only early in the morning and late 

 in the afternoon, taking from ten to fourteen days to 

 finish the excavation. By the middle of May there have 

 been laid seven or eight beautifiil, glossy-white eggs, 

 having a pearly lustre, and so transparent that when 

 fresh the yolks show through the shell. As incubation 

 advances, the shells become more opaque, until, when 

 ready to hatch, they have a limy ring around the middle, 

 showing where the shell will part. In fifteen days 

 appear the most grotesque of aU bird babies, unless it be 

 those of the plicated woodpecker or of the cormorant. 

 Their bodies are the shape, size, and color of a pink rub- 



