50 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



to serve as entrances to nesting cavities. Since the entrances are irreg- 

 ular in shape, being 1 to 1 14 inches wide by li/4 inches or more high, 

 and usually 10 to 25 feet up, they are not at all conspicuous. The 

 bottom of the nesting cavity is usually about 8 inches below the 

 entrance, and in some cases it is so small that a family of six or seven 

 young nuthatches must find it very cramped quarters. The lining, 

 often scanty, is of shreds of bark, bits of cocoons or of wool, and a few 

 feathers." 



Eggs.— Pygmy nuthatches may lay anywhere from four to nine eggs 

 to a set : the smaller numbers are unusual, and most of the sets consist 

 of six to eight eggs. They vary in shape from ovate to short-ovate 

 and have practically no gloss. The ground color is pure white, and 

 they are usually unevenly and rather sparingly sprinkled with fine 

 dots of reddish brown or brick red, "hazel," or "vinaceous-cinnamon" ; 

 some eggs are more heavily spotted about the larger end, rarely else- 

 where, with these colors or "chestnut." Eggs of this species do not 

 show so much variation as those of some of the other nuthatches, and 

 are not so handsomely marked. The measurements of 40 eggs average 

 15.3 by 11.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 

 16.3 by 11.4, 15.0 by 12.5, 14.2 by 12.2, and 15.2 by 11.1 millimeters. 



Young. — I can find no definite statement as to the period of incuba- 

 tion, which is probably about 14 days. Perhaps both sexes share in 

 this duty, but the fact that the male is known to feed the female on the 

 nest indicates that she probably does most, if not all, of the incubating. 

 Both parents feed the young in the nest and for some time after they 

 leave it. Mrs. Wheelock (1904), at the nest she watched, noted that 

 "both male and female were busy hunting some sort of white larvae 

 that they obtained from an old stump. The adults did not swallow 

 these, but carried them in their bills — which convinced me that the 

 nestlings were at least five days old." 



Mr. Gignoux (1924) writes: 



Both parent birds were engaged in the task of carrying what appeared to be 

 flies, worms, and white grubs, and both birds were often in sight at the same 

 time. The first visit was recorded at 2 : 26 in the afternoon and by 3 : 27 the 

 birds had made 24 calls, carrying food each time. At this rate the adult birds 

 were making over 300 trips a day. The longest interval between visits was 8 

 minutes, the shortest was half a minute. The parents did their foraging in 

 nearby pine trees and well up from the ground, from about 50 to 80 feet or more 

 high. The insects were thrust into the bills of the young the instant the parents 

 arrived, without the slightest delay, and the old birds were off for more, now and 

 then stopping a second or so to remove material from the nest. * * * 



During the days on which I watched the birds, foraging was done in a group 

 of about 20 large pine trees. The flights were always direct from near the nest 

 to and from these pines. I measured what seemed the distance of these trees 

 from the nest and estimated that 150 yards was the average round trip and that 

 the total distance traveled each day was approximately 30 miles. 



