1892
July 7
(No 11)
Concord, Massachusetts
Mass
Concord.
History of Flicker's nest.

  They would all instantly and silently slip back
out of sight. On the 7th and frequently afterwards I
heard them tapping on the interior of the old shell.
  At six o'clock on the evening of the 9th I looked
into the nest and counted all five of the young. They
seemed to be fully grown and perfectly feathered. All
were colored precisely alike as far as I could see
and every one had the black mustache as extension,
deeply-colored and conspicuous as in the typical
adult male of this species. The white mark
on the end of the bill had been diminishing for
several days before this and on this evening I
noticed that in two or three birds it had almost
wholly disappeared which in the others it was now
confined to the extreme tip of the bill.
  Four of the young birds left the nest when I last
visited it at 11 a.m. July 10th. The fifth bird was still
in the nest at 5 p.m. of the 10th but he had left it
at 3 p.m. next day (11th) and was sitting on one of the
upper branches of the tree, calling pè-uk. This cry was
regularly answered from the orchard behind and from at least
two places across the river. Evidently the young were least
already scattered somewhat. Their cries were feebler than
than of an old bird but otherwise similar.

  The nest was left in a terribly foul state the bottom
being a disgusting mass of muddy excrement alive
with wriggling worms. I do not think that the
Flicker ever removes the excrement of its young. These
young, however, managed to keep very clean and
all, as far as I could discover, were perfectly
free from vermin.