1977 Walter D. Koenig Melanerpes formicivorus Hastings Reservation, Monterey Co. Calif. (4 July) otherwise he was being cleaned off by the ants). There was no trace of eggs or young; and due to decomposition it was pretty hard to decide what, if anything, had been eaten off the adult's body. This is neat indeed, but unfortunately nothing can be said with certainty. The facts are as follows 1) Bird died quite awhile ago (surely 15 days+). 2) Bird was a ♂ (unbanded); ♂♂ do spend the night on the nest 3) Babies would have hatched ≈ 22 days ago. The possibilities are more or less as wro follows: 1) Predator (owl?) killed incubating/brooding adult ♂ as he was spending night on nest, ate part of head and eggs/young. Not unreasonable given the circumstances. 2) Bird was predated in hole after nest had already failed (nest must have failed soon after start of incubation?). Not too likely. 3) Bird died in hole while incubating/brooding; other birds removed dead young, pecked dead adult. Possible. Why, though, would a sick or dying bird try to spend the night in the nest? Seems more likely that he'd go off to die on his own, leaving the babies to their own devices. Clearly this is the best instance of possible nest predation I've seen yet. It would be neat to be able to pin it down further, but it's hard to get anything