Page:Condor2(3).djvu/5

 May, 9oo I THE CONDOR 53 not include it in this paper. I have taken eggs of all the resident species and all of them breed abundant- ly. The first, Gairdner's Woodpecker, hunts a mate about the first of April, and by the first of May the nest hole is finished and egg-laying commenced. The nest hole is generally du.g in dead and well rotted trees, frown two to twen- ty-five feet from the ground. Cotton- woods are the favorite trees but oc- casionally willows and even fence-posts are favored. In the posts the nesting sites are very low,--two to four or five feet from the ground. A nest found on May 8, 898 was only two feet from the ground and the hole was about eight inches deep, so that the bottom was not more than sixteen inches from the ground. This nest contained three young just hatched and one infertile egg. On the other extreme, a nest found in May, 897, was twenty-five feet from the ground in a dead cotton- wood and contained nothing, although the hole had been dug for three weeks and the birds had occupied it all the time. Another nest found May 2, t897 con- tained five fresh eggs. The entrance was about fifteen feet from the ground in a cottonwood stump. The hole was ten inches deep and the female did not leave until I had nearly chopped open the cavity. Last season I took two sets, and 74. The set of six was taken May  from a hole four feet from the ground in a cottonwGod fence post. After I had enlarged the entrance I saw a bird at the bottom and instantly took it to be a young one, but on inves- tigation I found it to be a female. She would not leave her eggs and I had to remove her while she pecked at my fingers, drawing blood at every blow. I put her in my p(cket and felt amply repaid by finding a set of six fresh eggs. The set of three eggs was taken May 3 from a hole eight. feet up in a dead cottonwood. The eggs were almost fresh and the female was incubating. This little woodpecker makes more nests in a season than it can use in five, and these extra holes, which are gener- ally shallow, are resorted to by blue- birds, wrens and swallows. The male digs the extra holes while the female is incubating. The male is quite fearless and will allow a person to approach very close to him and will often make for other woodpeckers who visit his lo- cality, in an endeavor to drive them away. Nuttall's Woodpecker (Dr3,obates nut- /all/) is next. I did not observe this species breeding until 899 when I took five sets of eggs. It is very similar to Gairdner's Woodpecker in habits, lay- ing from three to five eggs. The spe- cies is an early breeder and begins lay- ing about the sth of April or even earlier. A set of five taken on April 20 were very slightly incubated and were taken from a hole about seven feet up in a live alder tree. The male bird was on the eggs and left only after I had commenced chopping. The cavity was about one foot in depth. On the 22rid of April I took two sets of eggs of this species, one of three and one of five. The set of three was taken from a nest thirty feet from the ground in a dead cottonwood and the eggs were slightly incubated. The female was on the nest and the male was near by drumming on a dead limb. When I came back in the afternoon I found the birds had commenced another nest a few feet from the one I had robbed. The set of five was taken from a hole in a cottonwood stub twelve feet up and were well incubated. One of the eggs of the set is remarkably long and narrov. The next day, April 23, I took another set of eggs of this species. The hole was twenty feet from the ground in a dead cottonwood, and the female flushed when I struck the tree. The nest contained three fresh eggs. My fifth set was taken May  and con- sisted of four eggs, which have little, rough knobs on them, much after the style of lumps on some cormorants' eggs. Incubation had commenced and the fe-