As already mentioned, Noble and Mason (_op. cit._:9-10) noted that females would accept and brood the eggs of other individuals just as readily as their own, and several writers have reported gregarious nesting habits, with two or more females occupying either the same nest cavity, or separate cavities that were in close proximity. For instance, Cagle wrote that among the small logs he found to contain nests, four logs each contained one nest, five each contained two nests, and two each contained three nests, while three other nests were found within an eight inch square area in loose soil among tree roots. McCauley (1939:93) in Maryland found three females brooding clutches of eggs, which totaled 20, and which were so near together that there was uncertainty as to which clutch certain eggs belonged in. The gregarious nesting habit may be of benefit in permitting maximum utilization of choice nesting sites, where such sites are in short supply in an environment otherwise favorable. Also, the gregarious tendencies make possible more continuous guarding of the eggs against such natural enemies as can be repulsed by the female, since each female occasionally interrupts her brooding to bask or forage. Many of the nests that I found were in close proximity to others. Often two nests, and sometimes even three, were found beneath the same rock, and sometimes a distance of only two or three inches intervened between the separate clutches. It seemed, however, that in almost every instance each female had excavated a separate nest chamber originally. In some instances adjacent nest chambers communicated with each other. On July 13, 1948, a communal nest was discovered beneath loose bark of a decaying elm log. There were 22 eggs in the combined clutch, and there were two females in the vicinity. The bark was raised on several different days to examine the eggs, and one or both females always were found with the eggs.