Kuthatch WESTERN BIRDS 



and so sprightly are they, as they forage and keep up 

 their low call, that you cannot adequately count them if 

 you would. 



They are essentially birds of the west, being found 

 from British Columbia south to Mt. Orizaba, Mexico; 

 and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. 



Irene Grosvenor Wheelock, in her "Birds of Cali- 

 fornia," tells of finding a nest of the Pigmy Nuthatches 

 in a hollow post several feet out in the waters of Lake 

 Tahoe, California. The birds were carrying feathers 

 into a crevice scarcely large enough for a mouse. Though 

 Mrs. Wheelock stood in a boat and rested a hand on 

 the post, not a foot from the doorway, they came and 

 went, unmindful of her. Later, also, when there were 

 baby birds, they did not mind her presence. 



Mrs. T. F. Bicknell, of Los Angeles, tells of a quarrel 

 between a Sierra Creeper and one of these Nuthatches 

 which took place in the top of a dead pine about twenty 

 feet from the ground in the San Bernardino Mountains. 

 Hearing a great commotion in the tree and turning her 

 glass upon it she tells us that she found "that a Pigmy 

 Nuthatch and a Creeper were having an unneighborly 

 difference of opinion as to which should hold possession 

 of a large hole in the top of the tree trunk. There was 

 much loud talking by both and sundry pecks and thrusts 

 of bills, and ruffling up of feathered coats. Soon the 

 little blue-gray Pigmy was joined by two comrades who 

 immediately entered into the quarrel with many angry 

 threats and loud scoldings that completely vanquished 

 the more peaceably inclined Creeper, who departed with 

 dignity. 



"Then the three Nuthatches took turns going into the 

 hole, coming out with tiny chips in their bills which 

 they tossed over the side of the tree trunk onto the 

 ground. If one worked alone, he flirted the chips from 

 his bill while he stood at the entrance of the hole, but 



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