282 NEST8 AND EOaS OF 



regioa all about Tucson, and he occasionally saw single individuals in the mesquite 

 timber. All that he ever met with breeding have been in giant cactus. The nesting 

 time is from April 10 until the last of May. According to Mr. Scott, the number of 

 eggs is small, varying from two to five; the latter number being the largest he ever 

 found In a nest.* The eggs are glossy-white, and average 1.12x.84. 



414a. BROWN FLICKER. Colaptes chrysoides brunnescens Anthony. Geog. 

 Dist. — Northern Lower California. 



This is a brown phase of the Gilded Woodpecker, occupying the northern por- 

 tloni of Lower California. 



415. GUADALtrPE FLICKER. Colaptes rufipileus Ridgw. Geog. Dist — 

 Guadalupe Island, Lower California. 



Mr. Walter E. Bryant gives us the first knowledge we have concerning the nest- 

 ing and eggs of this bird.f On Guadalupe Island he found it not rare in the re- 

 stricted area of a large cypress grove, but apart from this locality less than a dozen 

 were seen during his stay on the Island. For a portion of the year the food of this 

 species consists largely of smooth-skinned caterpillars, with numerous beetles and 

 ants. The nesting cavities are found at heights varying from three to fifteen feet. 

 The scarcity of decayed trees, with the exception of fallen ones, necessitates either 

 work upon seasoned wood or the resort to dead palm stumps. A cavity was found 

 April 7, which was dug to the depth of twenty inches, and contained six fresh eggs, 

 upon which the female was sitting. They correspond exactly, both in color and 

 general shape, with scores of other eggs of this genus, and offer the following 

 measurments in millimeters: 28x22. 2Sx22, 28x22.5, 29x22, 29.5x22, 29.5x22.t 



416. CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW. Antrostomus caroUnensig (Gmel.) Geog. 

 Dist. — South Atlantic and Gulf States, from Virginia south through Eastern Mexico 

 to Central America; Cuba. North in the interior to Southern Illinois and Kansas. 

 Accidental in Massachusetts. 



Perhaps the two best known JJorth American species of this family [Caprimul- 

 0dw, the Goatsuckers), are the Whip-poor-will, Antrostomus vociferus, and the Night- 

 hawk, Chordeiles virginianus. They are all more or less nocturnal, and fanciful 

 imaginations have detected in many of their cries the syllables from which their 

 common names are derived — such is the case with Chuck-will's-widow. It is no- 

 where a very abundant species, but more common in Florida than in any other State. 

 It is found in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. Mr. Stuart 

 Informs me that in Florida it nests in the months of May and June, depositing two 

 eggs on the bare ground, or on leaves in the shadow of some dense thicket. Accord- 

 ing to Audubon, deep ravines, shady swamps and extensive pine groves are the re- 

 treats of this species during the day, when the birds roost in hollow trees. When 

 in search of food, the same places are resorted to at night, and thsir singular notes 

 are only uttered for a brief period in the early evening, when on the wing. If 

 either their eggs or young are disturbed, they are carried off in the capacious mouths 

 of the birds to some distant part of the forest, in the same manner that a cat trans- 

 ports her kittens. A set of two eggs in my cabinet, collected by Mr. Stuart near 

 Tampa, Florida, May 20, 1886, measure 1.40x1.02, 1.42x1.00; another set, from Mana- 



• The Auk, III, 429. 



t Addition to the Ornithology of Guadalupe Island; Bulletin 6, California Academy of 

 Sciences, pp. 285-288. 



t l.lOx.87, l.lOx.87, l.lOx.89, 1.14X.87, 1.16X.87, i.l6x.87. 



