208 
IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
nearly as sharp as needles and make it easy for them to bracket themselves 
within the hard brick chimneys. 
Their nests are open, lattice-work baskets made of small twigs broken from 
trees as the birds fly by and glued together and to the chimney (or hollow tree, 
as is the case in wild regions) by a glue secreted as saliva by the birds them- 
selA^'es. 
The season of the chimney swift with us is from late April until well into 
October. 
Ruby-throated Humming Bird. The only humming bird commonly found in 
lov/a and the only one that I have ever found in Polk county is the well known 
little ruby-throated species. They are not very common here, though by no 
means rare. 
They are the smallest of our birds and build their tiny nests usually on a 
horizontal branch where it resembles a tiny knot. The 'nest is made of fern 
wool, plant down, etc., and covered with lichens or chips of bark. The nest 
disappears soon after the young birds have left it because of its minute size 
and the destructiveness of the weather. 
The humming bird is with us from about the second week in May until some 
time in October. 
OEDER PICi: WOODPECKERS, ETC. 
Hairy Woodpecker. The least common of the five woodpeckers which I shall 
speak of here, the hairy woodpecker is found in the light woods along the rivers 
and among the wooded hills throughout the county. 
He is a dashing, active fellow, a little larger than the red-head and hence 
easily recognized. He is a yearly resident here most often seen in the fall 
when the young ones are numerous. This woodpecker, as is the case with the 
others, drills its nest cavity out in a tree or post from eight to thirty-five feei 
from the ground. 
Downy Woodpecker. Just a smaller edition of the hairy, in color and 
habits, the downy woodpecker is much more common in Polk county as well as 
being more trustful of the human family. This little fellow may often be seen 
at all times of year persistently searching the trunks of trees for insects and 
their larvae and pupae. 
Yellow-bellied Bapsucker. The sapsucker is a common summer resident, ar- 
riving here in March and departing in November, and is the one destructive 
member of the woodpecker tribe. His pernicious habit of drilling rows of 
holes into our trees, sucking the sap and eating the Cambrian layer of bark, has 
been the cause of the death of many of our fruit trees, and has brought a 
hearty hatred for the sapsucker from most of our horticulturists. 
Red-headed Woodpecker. The red-headed woodpecker is well known wher- 
ever there is a suitable place for nesing. I am sorry to state, however, that this 
bird is becoming less common than he was a few years ago, due, I think, to the 
slaughter practiced by the thoughtless boy, or man, with a gun and no game. 
Flicker. The flicker, commonly known as the yellow-hammer or golden- 
winged woodpecker, is at present the most common of our woodpeckers in Polk 
county. His season with us, as is also the case with the red-head, is from 
March to November. This is the largest bird of his tribe in this locality, and 
does a vast amount of good to the farmer and to humanity in general by des- 
troying countless numbers of insects. 
