Vol.Xl 
■893 J 
Brewster, A Brood of Toting Flickers. 
231 
A BROOD OF YOUNG FLICKERS (COLAPTES 
A UR A TVS) AND HOW THEY WERE FED. 
BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 
Late in May, 1892, I noticed a Flicker’s hole, then apparently 
completed, in a very rotten stump covered externally with gray 
lichens and a species of woody fungus. This stump was one of 
seven nearly upright but diverging stems, all evidently sprouts 
from the same roots and six still living. The tree, an ancient 
white maple, stood on the bank of Concord River, within a few 
yards of a boat landing. Besides the Flicker’s hole the old sturrtp 
contained at this time two other inhabited nests ; a Downy Wood- 
pecker’s near the top, and a little lower down a Bluebird’s. The 
Flicker’s nest was still lower — about ten feet above the ground. 
The Bluebirds first, and shortly afterwards the Downy Wood- 
peckers, reared and took away their young, after which a pair of 
House Sparrows entered into possession of the hole which the 
Downies had vacated. Scarcely had the female Sparrow laid 
her eggs, when a boy, attempting to climb the stump, broke it off 
squarely at the entrance hole of the Flicker’s nest. For two 
weeks or more previous to this, I had frequently started one 01- 
other of the Flickers from the nest in passing it on my way 
to the landing ; but I had learned little regarding them beyond 
the fact that their hearing was so keen that I could never quite 
reach the tree without alarming them, and that during this 
period (when, as will presently appear, incubation must have 
been constantly going on) they were frequently at work pecking 
at the inside of the trunk. 
The accident to the stump happened June 23, at about noon. 
An hour later I examined the nest, which was now entirely open 
at the top. In the bottom lay five young Flickers, about as large 
as plucked House Sparrows and perfectly naked. Their eyes 
were tightly closed and I judged them to be less than a week old. 
They were writhing and shivering pitifully, the air being cool 
and damp at the time. I watched the nest for nearly an hour, 
but saw nothing of the parent birds. As a cold rain storm 
began soon after and lasted through the following night I con- 
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