684 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



or country. In the Lower Peninsula there 



probably is not a town or village in which /- 



this bird is not frequently to be seen if looked ^ 



for, and in most localities it is a regular in- y;^_ 147. ^ing of White-breasted 



habitant of parks and shade trees, not only Nuthatch, showing very short first 



in the suburbs, but even in the cities them- i^im-iry. ngma . 



selves. Where this is not the case it is usually because the English Sparrow 



has occupied all the possible nesting places, and so the Nuthatch is found 



only during migration, or in winter. 



Its habits are too well known to need extended description. It is one 

 of the most restless and energetic birds known, seldom c^uiet for a dozen 

 seconds at a time, but usually running up and down the trunks and larger 

 branches of trees, often with a beech-nut or acorn in its bill, and occasionally 

 seen hammering (that is, "hatching") that bit of food with its sharp bill, 

 having previously wedged the nut into some crevice of the bark. At 

 other times it may be seen carrying bits of acorn meat or the kernels of 

 seeds which it has shelled, and if watched it will be seen to crowd these 

 into crevices of the bark or hide them in natural or artifical holes in the 

 trunks of trees or the cracks of fence posts, whence undoubtedly it some- 

 times extracts them again in time of need. 



, "^Although abundant throughout the year in most places, there is never- 

 theless a migration of the species as a whole, a swinging of all the in- 

 dividuals southward in winter and northward in summer, so that we are 

 not sure that the individuals which nest with us are the same which we 

 see in midwinter. Even in summer this species does not seem to be very 

 abundant in the Upper Peninsula, at all events, not equally abundant 

 in all parts. Most of our reports from north of 45° speak of the bird as 

 rare, or at least not very common, but here and there observers find 

 it abundant and nesting. In the southern part of the state it is fully 

 as abundant in winter as in summer, but for a time in March and again 

 in October it seems to be more abundant than at any other period. 

 ' .This bird is known sometimes to nest very early in the season; the writer 

 saw one carrying nesting material into a hole in a brick wall at the Agricult- 

 ural College on March 9, 1896, and another was seen taldng food into a hole 

 in a tree in the neighboring woods on April 11, 1896, which would seem 

 to show that it was then feeding young. At the present writing (April 12, 

 1912) we have a pair under observation on the College campus which are 

 feeding young in a knot-hole in an oak. On the other hand, we have 

 records of nearly a dozen sets of eggs, all, with one exception, taken in 

 May, the exception being a set of nine taken in Kalamazoo county April 

 27, 1889 by the late Richard B. Westnedge. Other nests taken by the 

 same collector are as follows: Four eggs May 25, 1887, four eggs May 5, 

 1888, eight eggs May 2, 1890, and three sets of eight, eight and seven 

 respectively on May 2, 1890. Mr. Samuel Spicer of Goodrich, Genesee 

 count3^ took a set of four eggs May 6, 1888, and Leon J. Cole took a nest 

 of eight eggs at Grand Rapids May 4, 1897. These facts suggest the 

 possibility of two broods, one hatched in April and the other late in May, 

 although this is contrary to the statements of most authors, from Audubon 

 down. 



A nest taken by Mr. Trombley, at Peterslnirg, is described as follows: 

 "The nest was in a dry basswood stub about twenty-five feet from the 

 ground. The hole was only about six inches deep, but was quite large, 

 at least eight or ten inches in diameter, not a knot-hole but aj^parently 



