Large Set of Flicker’s Eggs. 
i 
On the 2 1 st of May, 1892, I made pre- 
paration for an all day tramp through the 
! woods of Philadelphia County. 
I had not gone very far, when I saw a 
Flicker fly out of a hole in a cherry tree. 
The hole was about ten feet from the 
ground and contained five eggs. Three 
days later I visited the nest again, and was 
surprised to find three more eggs deposited. 
I went to the hole day after day until it' 
contained seventeen eggs. On the night 
of the seventeenth day it rained, and the 
next morning the hole was filled with 
water. Is this not an enormous set of 
eggs for a Flicker? M. C. C. Wilde. 
Camden, N.J. 
0.&OVol.l7, Sept. 1892 p.137 
Five Sets of Eggs From One Bird 
in One Season. 
BY J. p. N. 
On May 16, 1888, a set of six eggs of the Yel- 
l ow-sh afted Flicker {Colaptes auratus ), were 
found in Chester” Co., Penn. Desiring to as- 
certain some facts in relation to the time oc- 
cupied by this species in laying their eggs, the 
eggs were all removed. 
On May 23, another set of six eggs were 
taken from the same hole. 
On May 31, a third set of six were taken, also 
from the same hole. 
On June 6, a fourth set of six were removed 
from the same nest. 
On June 18, a fifth set of six were found in 
the same place. These last eggs were incubat- 
ed, while all the others were perfectly fresh. 
All of the eggs were remarkably large and 
pointed for this species, and no nest eggs were 
left to induce the bird to continue laying, as all 
were removed in each set each time, they 
showed no diminution in size, as the last set 
were as large as the first. 
lift HI 
O.&O, . 3311. jQiy. 1868 P. 1 Q 2 . 
Golden-winged Woodpeckers Nesting in a Natural Cavity 
in a Decayed Tree.- — I noticed to-day, May 12, 1879, in the vicinity 
of Princeton, N. J., a hole that looked, on first sight, like that of a 
Flicker ( Colaptes auralus') that had been just finished. It was on the 
main trunk of a buttonwood-tree, about eighteen inches in diameter. On 
more closely examining the hole, I found that it merely pierced the 
“ shell ” of the tree, which was hollow entirely through its centre. It 
had evidently been drilled under a misapprehension, and the work aban- 
doned as soon as the hollow condition of the tree was ascertained. On 
rapping on the trunk of this tree, I saw a Flicker leave a large branch at 
Notes on the Flicker. 
Spring is here again and before many weeks 
all our feathered friends will be hard at work 
with nest building and egg laying, and the 
collector’s field will once more be free for him 
to roam and enjoy himself to his heart’s con- 
tent. The professional collector, too, will be 
reaping his harvest of eggs and skins, and the 
outlook for 1892 is favorable for all of us. 
I want to tell you of some curious notes 1 
took last summer in various parts of the 
country. They may not be new to some of my 
fellow ornithologists, but they are to me. 
I was staying near Middletown, Del., a little 
while last summer and made observations on 
three pairs of Flickers. The first pair built in 
a live tree within ten feet of the house and the 
peculiarity was that the cavity was natural. 
It was merely a hollow about six inches deep 
in the top of a stump caused by a dead 
limb and was about ten feet from the ground. 
This hollow was entirely natural and had in 
no way been altered by the birds. 
I watched them carefully and hoped to be 
able to discover something peculiar in the 
birds, but after catching both the adults and 
carefully examining their bills and feet, I 
could see nothing to cause them to depart 
from the regular order of nest building of their 
species. About a week after the young biids 
were hatched, there came a heavy rain-storm 
and on ascending to the tree, I found the nest, 
which as I said was a more cup and entirely 
unprotected, filled with water and the young 
of the interesting family all dead. 
Another peculiar instance in the same local- 
ity was a nest by a pair of birds of the same 
species in an apple tree. The hollow in this 
instance was fully a foot and a half in diamater 
and extended to the ground, the birds enter- 
ing through a knothole about five feet a hove. 
I noticed them entering and being unbale to 
reach anything, procured an axe and cut out 
the bottom of the trunk. The eggs were five 
in number and laid on the ground at the 
I bottom of the hole. To make sure of these 
birds I shot the male and have him, together 
with the eggs, now in my possession. 
I have on record another instance of this 
sort but it being similiar to the others I will 
not relate it. I should like to know if these 
' habits have been observed in any other part of 
S the country as they are entirely new to me 
M. G. Conwell. 
Baltimore, Md. 
O.& O.Vol.17, Jane, 1892 p.91 

its extremity, and the cavity from which she emerged was found on exami- 
nation to contain seven fresh eggs. This cavity had not been formed by 
drilling or digging by the birds, but was simply a natural hollow caused 
by decay. The cavity started at a point where the branch had been 
broken, and was at its opening about three inches in diameter. It ex- 
tended into the limb some two feet and a half, and the eggs were laid on 
the blackened rotten chips at its extremity. The birds had evidently de- 
signed to build in the tree, and having occupied much time at the work of 
drilling the hole spoken of in the main trunk, the female was obliged, 
| by the necessity of laying her eggs, to find some immediate receptacle, 
j So the natural cavity, in an entirely different part of the tree, was utilized. 
— W. E. D. Scott, Princeton, N. O. O. 5, J 80 • 1 X880> P» 
