BLACK-EARED NUTHATCH 51 



Mrs. Wheelock (1905) tells of another nest, not those referred to 

 above : 



In this case there were newly hatched young in the nest ; and, as the adults 

 went inside to feed them not more than two feet from my eyes, I was able to see 

 perfectly that the food was carried in the throat. Of course this could only 

 mean regurgitation ; but not until the third day could I get at the nestlings to 

 examine the crops. The contents consisted of larvae of insects and ant eggs, all 

 partially digested. On the fifth day the examination indicated the presence 

 of fresh or unregurgitated insect and grass food. On the sixth day most of the 

 food given was fresh, but on two occasions the adults visited the nests with no 

 visible supply in the bills. No record was kept of this brood after the sixth day. 

 Two other broods of this species were recorded at the same place and with 

 practically the same results. 



J. Eugene Law (1929), while studying the behavior of a pair of 

 these nuthatches, noted that "when a fecal sac was brought out, it was 

 not dropped in flight but was carried out and left attached to some 

 high limb. One particular limb of another tree received it on more 

 than one occasion that I saw. After depositing the feces the bird 

 wiped and rapped its beak on the limb vigorously." He also relates 

 the following : 



One day as Dr. Tracy I. Storer and I stood near, a parent, grasping with its 

 beak, seized a nestling by the shoulder, and after a rough tussle pulled the chick 

 out and let it go fluttering to the ground. There, after a rest, during which 

 parental solicitude obviously urged action, the fledging fluttered along the 

 ground directly to the base of a huge live pine near-by and began to climb. 

 A yard or two at a time, intervalled by long rests, it finally worked up the trunk 

 to the first limbs, some 50 feet. The astonishing thing was that the fledgling 

 elevated itself up trunk mainly by rapid fluttering of its wings while keeping the 

 body axis parallel with the perpendicular tree trunk, all the while pawing the 

 bark furiously with its feet. Progress was slow, dangerously near no progress, 

 it seemed. 



After the young have left the nest, they travel about in a family 

 party until they learn to shift for themselves. These parties later join 

 in larger flocks, made up of several families, and roam through the 

 tree tops during fall and winter. 



Plumages. — Ridgway (1904) says that young pygmy nuthatches in 

 Juvenal plumage are "similar to adults, but pileum and hindneck 

 gray, only slightly, if at all, different from color of back, and sides and 

 flanks pale buffy brown or brownish buff instead of gray." Appar- 

 ently, after the postjuvenal molt in August, old and young birds are 

 practically indistinguishable. Adults have a complete postnuptial 

 molt beginning about the middle of July and lasting through most of 

 August; I have seen adults in fresh plumage as early as August 20. 

 In fresh fall plumage the colors are richer and darker, the under parts 

 decidedly buff, and the pale spot on the nape is partially concealed 

 with gray tips. 



