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156 THE CONDOR VoL XVII come hurrying up and make a dive at him, causing a retreat to the other table. Frequently the new-comer would then follow and drive him from the second table. He seemingly would rather fight than eat if another one was eating at the same time. One day I saw him, or her, I forget which, hanging to the edge of the table busily eating steak, when another one perched on the table and made a vicioHs stab at him. He dodged backward clear under the table, though retaining his hold, and then bobbed up again, just like the Punch and Judy show. The attack was Fig. 56. NESW AND SET OF FIVE EGGS OF GILA WOOOPEC?ER, ? SAGVAno, OB G?X?w Cxcwus. A PORTIO? OF THE TRU?K HAS BEEN CUT AWAY ?0 AS ? SHOW A VERTIC? SECTIO? OF THE ?'EST CAVIl. renewed, and the dodging as well, but this time he did not "come back". Another day one of them was at work on a piece of melon when one of his fello? came and perched on the end of the table. The diner made a pass at the new comer, and seizing him by the feathers of the neck held him suspended over the end of the table for a few sec- onds. Nesting sites in this local- ity are restricted to giant cactus ( Cereus giganteus), cottonwood and willow, as they are the only suitable material for a nest excava- tion. More nests are found in the gia.nt cactus, as these plants are more numerous than the others, and more "peckable", though the wil- lows and cottonwoods along the river and the canals are well patronized when suffi- ciently decayed. Of the nests I examined I should say that fifty per cent were in the cac- tus, and the rest equally di- vided between the other trees mentioned. I say exami.ned, advisedly as I saw many holes in the giant cactus that I did not climb to. My ladder was only fourteen feet long and while I have "shinned up" a cactus several feet beyond the end of my ladder it was done only on special occasions. Life is too short and time too precious to spend any great portion of it digging thorns from the flesh. As ?o the size of the holes in the cactus as compared with those in cotton- wood and willow, I found no appreciable difference. I expected the holes in the cactus to average a little larger owing to possible greater ease in excavat-