424 THE GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER. 
few of the finest, are mostly thrown out of the entrance on 
the ground, which reveals their nesting place. 
In the few chips remaining in the hole the female makes 
a slight hollow, and lays from six to eight semi-transparent 
and highly polished white eggs. They measure lj of an 
inch in length, by % of an inch in breadth. While incuba- 
tion is going on, the male, when he relieves the female from 
setting, flies to the tree and alights near the entrance, and 
emits ‘the notes resembling in sound the syllables “flicker, 
flicker,” and peeps around the tree at the entrance to see 
when the female leaves. On hearing him she quits the nest, 
when he immediately takes charge of the eggs until she re- 
turns. When the young are large enough they leave the 
cavity and creep to the top of the tree, locating themselves 
on different parts of it, and are fed by the old birds until 
they can fly quite well, when they are taken to the fields and 
pastures or woodlands, where they soon learn to provide for 
themselves. Although the usual number of eggs laid by 
these birds for a brio are from six to eight, yet they will 
sometimes lay a hundred, when they are tiken "ix the nest 
as often as they are laid, leaving: one for a nest egg. Trials 
have been made of the number of eggs they d hatch at 
one setting. A dozen of eggs were taken from the nest of 
one, and then the bird was gc to lay the usual quota 
for a brood ; then to these the number that were taken were 
added, and the bird commenced setting. In due time these 
eggs were hatched, and when the young birds were old 
enough to creep about the tree, it literally swarmed with | 
young woodpeckers. 
se birds suffer exceedingly from the depredations of 
the Mottled Owl. I seldom find the breeding-place of this 
owl without finding the wing-feathers of the woodpecker 
scattered about it in greater quantities than those of any 
- other birds. They often alight upon the ground, and perch 
on a limb of a tree, a thing id other species | 
eckers are not accustomed to do. The Downy 



