132 SLENDER-BILL NUTHATCH. 



It is difficult to watch its movements, so 

 diminutive is it in size, and yet so quick withal. 

 The mellow song of the wrens se'ems almost 

 like fairy music ; and sounds so delicately sweet 

 appear to be out of place amidst such giant 

 trees. 



The nest is in shape like that of our house- 

 hold pets, built against a dead stump, or in the 

 deep clefts in the bark of a pine-tree which are 

 often taken advantage of, to act as lateral walls. 

 Its skill in imitating the colour and appearance of 

 the bark is perfectly wonderful : even when one 

 has watched the bird go in, it is most difficult to 

 make out that it is a nest and not real bark; 

 take the eye off the spot but an instant, and 

 goodbye to finding the nest again, except the 

 birds go in and out. They build in June, six 

 or seven eggs being generally laid, and arrive 

 about the middle of May, leaving in September, 

 young and old together. 



Nuthatches were busy in nearly every pine- 

 tree, with their constant companions the restless 

 tits. The three species common in the forests 

 east of the Cascades are : 



THE SLENDER-BILL NUTHATCH (Sitta aculeata, 

 Cassin). This nuthatch is very abundant in 

 the pine-forests from the coast .to the Rocky 



