The Red-shafted Flickers 



of cool, moist situations, if these are also comparatively open. Nests are 

 usually excavated in the month of April, or from that to June, according 

 to elevation; and any tree or stump may serve as host. In a northern 

 locality I saw a Flicker's 

 nest in a stump only two 

 feet high, and its eggs 

 rested virtually upon the 

 ground. Others occur in 

 live willows, cotton- 

 woods, oaks (whether 

 black or white), and ap- 

 ple trees. Pine and fir 

 stubs have their uses 

 also; and I have seen 

 nests, a few, sixty feet 

 up in dead pine trees. 

 The birds nest also in the 

 walls of buildings, in 

 which case they lug in 

 chips to lay on beam or 

 sill, and so prevent the 

 eggs from rolling. In 

 southern California the 

 Flicker occasionally 

 nests in banks, after the 

 fashion of Kingfishers ; 

 but in such instances the 

 nests are easily recog- 

 nized by their larger 

 size, and by the exag- 

 gerated key-hole shape 

 of the entrance. 



From six to ten 

 highly polished, semi- 

 transparent, white eggs 

 are laid upon the rotten 

 wood or chips which 

 usually line a nest; and 

 incubation begins, cus- 

 tomarily, when the last 

 egg is laid. Bendire 

 notes an instance, in the the hole story 



Taken in Sespe 



Photo by Dickey 



1045 



