Identifier: birdsofnewenglan00sam (find matches)
Title: The birds of New Englandand adjacent states: containing descriptions of the birds of New England ... together with a history of their habitats ... ; with illustrations of many species of the birds, and accurate figures of their eggs
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Samuels, Edward Augustus, 1836-1908
Subjects: Birds Birds Birds
Publisher: Boston : Noyes, Holmes
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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heir young. They bothwork with great industry and apparent pleasure. Should the male,for instance, be employed, the female is close to him, and congratu-lates him on the removal of every chip which his bill sendsthrough the air. While he rests, he appears to be speaking to heron the most tender subjects, and when fatigued is at once assistedby her. In this manner, by the alternate exertions of each, thehole is dug and finished. — Audubon. This is often as much as twenty inches in depth, and ina solid tree very often at that. On the bottom of this hole,the female lays six pure-white eggs: these are generally ofuniform ovoidal shape, and vary in size from 1 to 1.16 inchin length, by from .82 to .92 in breadth. When the eggs are removed, the female, after a coupleof days deliberation, lays another litter ; and I have knownof this being repeated several times by a bird that wasunwilling to leave the nest which she and her mate hadbeen at so much labor to prepare. Instances have occurred
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GoLDEN-wiNGKD WooDiKCKER, Cohiptes auratiis. Swainson. THE GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER. 107 of this birds laying eighteen or twenty eggs in a fewdays, they being removed as soon as laid, and only two orthree being left in the nest at a time. The food of this spe-cies consists of insects, berries, and grains. Ants aregreedily eaten by it, and constitute no inconsiderable por-tion of its diet. On visiting the nest at night, I have veryseldom been able to catch the old bird iii it; she almostalways heard my approach, and took flight: once I caughther on the nest; but, as I put my hand in to secure her, sheattacked it with fierce pecks of her bill, and made such anonslaught that I was glad to permit her to escape. Butone brood is reared in the season. 108 OBNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. ORDER III. —INSESSORES. Perchers. In accordance with the views of many systematic writers,\t may perhaps be as well to retain an order Insessores, and toplace in it the Strisores, Glamatores, and Oscines as sub-ord

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