Nest of Picus villosus; Wounded Sphyrapicus
MAINE, (L. Umbagog. [Umbagog Lake, Maine]) Nest of H. bicolor [Hirundo bicolor]
Song of the woodcock
Friday Found a nest of Turdus mig. Turdus migratorius] 2 young half grown.
June 2 [June 2, 1876] Clear and very hot with very light E. [east] wind.
Off after breakfast with S. [William Stone] taking the boat
and paddling up to Stone's where we
left her and going ashore took the
Ellinwood path and shot there through 
the forenoon. I took 14 birds the best
D. Blackburniae [Dendroica blackburniae] 4, D. castanea [Dendroica castanea] 2, Certhia
Am. [Certhia americana] 1, Sphy. varius [Sphyrapicus varius] 2, Vireo solitarius 1 etc.
I shot a very fine [male] Sphyrapicus [Sphyrapicus varius] breaking the
tip of his wing only. Upon picking him
up he set up a perfectly deafening clamor
screaming continuously and so loudly that
he might have been heard a quarter of a 
mile off. This soon brought up a female probably
his mate, which I shot. In a few moments
more, birds of all kinds came trooping
up and standing in one spot I shot down
three more. He was very fierce and spirited
raising the beautiful feathers of the crown
and hammering my hand with his bill so severely
as to nearly draw blood. The Certhia [Certhia americana] was a 
[female] and dissection showed three eggs all larger
than [illustration] and the oviduct so swollen that
others must have already been laid. Saw two
My. crinitus [Myiarchus crinitus]. Along this path woodpeckers presumably
Hylotomus have made great havoc & I saw an
old stump furrowed into the core, the furrow
4 in wide & six feet long. Heard the only Pooecetes
gram [Pooecetes gramineus] that I have seen here this year, on the
Stone farm. Coming home found a nest of Picus
villosus in a small stub, not more than 3 ft above
the water. I hammered on it & the [male] came out
I heard young inside making a soft twittering but
I shall investigate further. Ripped out also a 
nest of Hirundo bicolor with 2 eggs & saw a 
Colaptes looking out of her hole. The hole of the P. villosus [Picus villosus]
[margin]nest 1 15/16 in. [inches] in diameter & the thickness of the wood at the orifice 1 1/2 in. In the evening went up on the hill behind Abbott's and heard a woodcock calling Getting up within 20 yds., we listened a long time to his notes: compared with the night hawks cry (they were circling all around at the time) it was very similar but more vibrating & less loud. He finally rose on whistling wings and going up on a gentle spiral to the height of at least 200 yds. sang exactly as noted in April 1874 but more feebly. He afterwards uttered his cry for a long time but would not rise again. A. Houhimer arrived this evening[/margin]