ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
69 
they are intended to accommodate the young after they have left 
the nest. As an example of exceptional choice of situation, one 
nest was found in a perfectly live poplar-tree of large size. The 
birds had pierced a somewhat irregular hole in the trunk, where a 
limb had rotted out, and, following the partially decayed wood into 
the very heart of the tree, had excavated a cavity to the depth of 
about twelve inches, which, when finished, was surrounded on all 
sides by healthy wood of at least six inches average thickness. 
The entrance to this nest was unusually low, being not over eight 
feet above the water. The average elevation I have found to be 
at least forty feet, and many nests occur considerably higher. The 
four sets of eggs taken on the occasion previously referred to are 
all apparently complete, and vary in number of eggs from five to 
seven, the set of five being the furthest advanced in incubation. 
Six are probably laid as a rule. The eggs vary considerably in 
shape, some being oblong and others decidedly elliptical. They 
average .85 in length by .60 in breadth. As with all the Wood- 
peckers, they are pure white* but there is much less of that fine 
polish than in eggs of the other species that I have examined. 
When fresh, and before being blown, they resemble very closely, 
both in color and size, average eggs of the Martin {Frogne pur- 
purea). After the young have hatched, the habits of the Yellow- 
bellied Woodpecker change. From an humble delver after worms 
and larvse, it rises to the proud independence of a Flycatcher, 
taking its prey on wing as unerringly as the best marksman of 
them all. From its perch on the spire of some tall stub it makes 
a succession of rapid sorties after its abundant victims, and then 
flies off to its nest with bill and mouth crammed full of insects, 
principally large Diptera. In this way both parents labor inces- 
santly to provide for their hungry brood. The young leave the 
nest in July, and for a long time the brood remains together, being 
still fed by the parents. They are very playful, sporting about the 
tree-trunks and chasing one another continually. Both young and 
old utter most frequently a low snarling cry that bears no very 
distant resemblance to the mew of the Catbird. The adults have 
also two other notes, — one, already spoken of, when the opposite 
sexes meet; the other a clear, ringing cleur^ repeated five or six 
times in succession, and heard, I think, only in the spring. The 
habit alluded to in Baird, Brewer, and Bidgway’s “ Birds of 
North America” (Vol. II, p. 541), of “drumming” on the tree- 
