170 



ZOOLOGY BIRDS. 



This diminutive species has been found abundant at all seasons in 

 every section visited by the survey. In summer, it is rather exclusively 

 pinicoline, ranging upward to the variable pine limit. I have found it as 

 numerous at 10,000 feet as at lower altitudes. In 1873, by June 12, in 

 Southern Colorado, I noticed the old birds flying about the high pine stubs, 

 with food in their bills for the young. In the pines of Mount Graham, 

 Arizona, during the first days of August, young and old were common; the 

 former still dependent upon the care of the parent birds. I have, therefore, 

 no doubt that two broods are reared in a season. Their habits are 

 eminently social, even during the breeding season ; it not being unusual to 

 find several associated with the Titmice and Warblers, the whole band 

 apparently being on the best of terms with each other. As fall approaches 

 these little bands are augmented continually till their number often reaches 

 the hundreds, and the trees seem fairly alive with the merry party, while 

 the loud, querulous weei weet of the Nuthatches, which is constantly repeated 

 as they move along the branches, or fly from tree to tree, is always conspicu- 

 ous among the softer notes of the Warblers and other species. At this sea- 

 son, it descends from the pine region, and is often seen in the groves of 

 evergreen oaks. 



