378 THROUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



depth. The entrance hole is circular, about an inch and a 

 half in diameter, just large enough to admit the bird. A 

 layer of fine chips is left in the bottom, on which the eggs are 

 deposited. The sexes relieve each other in this work, and 

 also share the duties of incubation. Erom five to seven eggs 

 are laid to a set, those containing five or six being most com- 

 mon. An egg is deposited daily, and should the first clutch 

 be taken, a second, usually of four eggs, is laid about two 

 weeks later, frequently in another ready excavation in the 

 same tree. They are devoted parents. The eggs are pure 

 white in colour, close-grained and only moderately glossy; 

 in shape they vary from ovate to elliptical ovate and occa- 

 sionally to an elliptical oval." There are seven skins, but 

 no eggs thereof, in the Ottawa Museum! 



403a. Eed-beeasted Sapsuckee — Sphyrapicus ruber not- 

 kensis (Suokow). 



On 25th May, 1889, near Eort St. James, Stuart's Lake, 

 an Indian found a nest in a hole of a standing dead tree, 

 lined with wood dust and a few very small twigs and feath- 

 ers. It held six eggs, and both parents were seen and shot 

 in the vicinity. Six days later another nest with eggs was 

 taken in the same locality. A young bird of the year was 

 also captured at Eort Babine, more than a hundred miles 

 farther north. This species is fairly abundant throughout 

 New Caledonia district. The United States National 

 Museum became the recipient of these birds and eggs. 



Major Bendire states that " the eggs when fresh and be- 

 fore blowing, like those of all woodpeckers, show the yolk 

 through the translucent shell, giving them a beautiful pinkish 

 appearance, as well as a series of straight lines or streaks of 

 a more pronounced white than the rest of the shell, running - 

 toward and converging at the smaller axis of the egg. After 

 blowing, the pink tint will be found to have disappeared 

 and the egg changed to a pure, delicate white, the shell 

 showing a moderate amount of lustre. There is considerable 

 variation in their shape, running as they do through all the 



