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AND OOLOGIST. 
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Hairy Woodpecker. 
( Picus villosus.) 
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In closing I may remark that there are three common birds that 
are always rare about Fort Hamilton, viz. : The Hairy Wood- 
pecker (Pictts ■villosus), the Downy Woodpecker ( Picus pube- 
sccns), and the Purple Martin ( Progne purpurea) . Now I 
expect that some readers of this article will conclude that its 
author is either afflicted with blindness, or else is a very careless 
observer. I beg leave to say that neither conclusion is correct. 
The .statement regarding the scarcity of the species just named, 
is the result of four years’ careful observation of the birds of this 
locality. Mr. Geo. H. Coues has, indeed, given both the Hairy 
and Downy Woodpeckers as common about the Naval Hospital, 
Brooklyn (this Bull., Vol. IV., p. 31). The Hospital is scarcely 
a dozen miles from Fort Hamilton, nevertheless I must stand to 
my statement, and am willing to take my oath upon a copy of 
Dr. Coues’s “Key to North American Birds,” as to its validity. 
In this vicinity I have met with the Downy Woodpecker only 
two or three times, and with the Hairy Woodpecker not at all. 
It is true that the woods have been pretty nearly cleared away 
from this part of the island, still a sufficient amount of woodland 
remains, and certainly the orchards should furnish ample accom- 
modations. The case of the Purple Martin is equally curious. 
This bird is common enough at the eastern end of the island, 
yet here I have only seen a few individuals. 
Bull, N, 0.0, OiJau,, 1881, p, /J. 
ZAv. oCj ~ 
u>w 4^4. yehe- 
other 
to another quite near, and 
fifteen minutes they moved 
md me back to the place 
irted. Very soon I heard a 
direction and immediately 
they were excavating a nest ; 
ile discovery to a collector 
ncy of that kind in his cabi- 
was an Elm, dead and about 
diameter at the nest, which 
ien feet up in the trunk. I 
let the 2d of May when in- 
nst commenced. The num- 
'as four, and one of the eggs 
h larger than the others, 
32nds of an inch 33x23, 
asured only 28 X 22 and No. 
4, 28X23. 
t of February my attention 
y some very singular bird 
U 
notes while in another section of woods, 
and following the sound I found a pair of 
Hairy Woodpeckers, and their fantastic 
movements and strange gutteral notes 
were new and very interesting to me. I 
watched the place and the birds frequently 
as spring approached, promising myself a 
possible set of eggs as the outcome of this 
discovery, and I got them a little later 
than the set just mentioned. I had lost 
sight of the birds for some weeks, when 
one day in the same vicinity I heard the 
rapping of a Woodpecker’s beak, follow- 
ing the sound, found the bird at work 
in an old decayed oak about eighteen feet 
up ; no branches only a stump with the top 
gone. I prepared a small whip-saw and 
with it removed a section of the tree be- 
low the entrance large enough to insert 
my hand in the hole, and on the 9tli of 
May secured a fine set of four fresh eggs 
from the nest. Replacing the section 
taken out securely the bird lingered by the 
nest and twelve days after I found four 
more eggs in it with incubation already 
progressing. It quite surprised me that 
they could replace a set so promptly. 
The same day on which I found the fore- 
going nest, on my return through another 
section of woods my attention was attracted 
by the loud chattering of a Hairy Wood- 
pecker, and following the sound I per- 
ceived the bird having a quarrel with some 
Blue Jays who were rather neighborly, 
and after a little quiet watching I found 
she was also engaged in hollowing out a 
tree. This time it was a Maple in full 
foliage, and the entrance to the nest was 
through wood perfectly sound and green 
for over an inch. The heart of the tree 
was decayed but it seemed scarcely possi- 
ble that the bird could have chiseled the 
entrance through so hard a spot with her 
little beak. With my little whip-saw I re- 
moved a section of the tree below the en- 
trance and found the set incomplete. Re- 
turning the section to its place and secur- 
ing it there, I waited a couple of days and 
^ & 
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