THE SLENDER-BILLED NUTHATCH. 287 



robbed by the blue-coateil thug. One such tragedy, with its luiman interest, 

 is reported for us by Miss Adelaide L. Pollock, the well-known bird-lover 

 of Seattle, as follows : 



"We found tlie lung piu"se-shaped nest swinging from the lower branches 

 of a giant red lir July 8th. and every day thereafter for two weeks some 

 member of our class in ornithology visited the castle in the air. It was woven 

 with a silken foundation gleaned in the cobwebs nf the forest, lined with the 

 pappus of the willnw anil the thistle, andthinked with moss, lichen, and faded 

 hazel blossoms. With an eye to man- fashion, the architects had papered the 

 home, but <jnly in spots on the outside. What a delight it was to watch the 

 parent birds light on the doorstep with a worm and plunge inside. By the 

 wriggling and swaying of the nest we knew there was something doing" there, 

 but we had to guess at the gaping mouths. Jul\' ijtli was a dreadful dav for 

 the nestlings. We heard the pitiful notes of birds in distress as we approached 

 and found the nest w-as gone. Searching the ground it appeared with a great 

 gaping hole in one side, which told of the work of ja\', crow, or chipmunk. 

 On investigation a tiny dead bunch of feathers was draw^n out; and then 

 something mo\"ed. The nest was tied to a hazel Ijranch and quick as a thought 

 the parents went in at the front and out at the new liack door. Gaining 

 courage they tried again, this time wdth food, and within the hour had apjiar- 

 ently forgotten their tragedy and settled down with the iine wee chick. While 

 the parents were foraging w?e opened the slit and the way that I)al)v I:)ird 

 turned tail-u|) and buried its head in tlie lining of the nest reminded us of 

 the ostrich. 



"July JOth we saw the youngster scramble u]) the sides of his home to 

 the doorway, where he (.lerched blinking his round brown eves at us. He 

 seemed to enjoy having his throat and back scratched and did not resent our 

 presence, but his parents did, for the nest was deserted at sundown of Jul\- 

 22d after a long visit from the class in the afternoon. Yet the tinv fledgling 

 could scarcely leap from twig to twig of the tangled undergrowth into which 

 he disappeared. Two da_\'s later we fancied we recognized the same faniih' 

 by a peculiar white iris of one parent bird, as thev flitted from branch to 

 branch of an alder forty feet above the ground." 



No. III. 



SLENDER-BILLED NUTHATCH. 



A. O. U. No. 727a. Sitta carolinensis aculeata (Cassin). 

 Description. — Adult male: Top of head, nape and upper boundary of back 

 shining black, with a slight greenish reflection; remaining upperparts ashv blue; 



