BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH 37 



of a small gum tree standing on the shore of a small lake. This stub 

 was 12 feet high and 8 inches in diameter, and the birds were at work 

 8 feet above the ground. The digging bird (and only one worked at 

 any one time) worked in all positions, but really preferred to hang 

 head downward from the trunk above the hole ; even when working 

 in this position, it did not touch its tail to the bark, except accidentally. 

 This Nuthatch gave its strokes like a woodpecker, but slower and at 

 a rate of about 50 strokes a minute for at least 30 minutes. Then its 

 mate came and relieved it. Although these birds were small, their 

 digging strokes were powerful and could be heard quite a distance, 

 perhaps as much as 200 yards, and had a rhythmical beat." 



C. S. Brimley (Pearson, Brimley, and Brimley, 1919) made some 

 notes on the time required by four pairs of brown-headed nuthatches 

 to make and line their nests and lay their eggs: "The first pair I 

 noted had finished digging out the hole and had commenced to line 

 it on March 22. Sixteen days later the nest contained four fresh 

 eggs. Pair No. 2 had just begun building on April 16, and in 10 

 days more the nest was finished and fresh eggs laid. Pair No. 3 

 worked for 22 days on one hole, and when I then lost patience and 

 broke it out to see what they had done, they had not even started 

 to line it. They then commenced on another stump, and in 22 more 

 days had the excavation completed, lined, and three eggs laid. Pair 

 No. 4 dug a hole, lined it, and laid three eggs in 13 days." 



Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says that, in South Carolina, "the hole, 

 which is excavated by both sexes, ranges from 6 inches to 90 feet 

 above the ground, and is generally dug in a dead pine stump or tree, 

 tliough sometimes a fence post is used. * * * The nest is con- 

 structed chiefly of the leaf-like substance in which the seeds of the 

 pine are enclosed, and I have often wondered at the infinite number 

 of trips the birds make in carrying, one at a time, these soft and 

 delicate pine seed-wings." 



Charles K. Stockard (1905) writes thus of the nesting habits of 

 this nuthatch in Mississippi : 



In the old pine deadenings of Adams County this small bird was found nesting 

 in considerable numbers. They dug their own burrow but it was a badly botched 

 affair, nothing about it suggesting the even smoothness of a woodpecker's hollow. 

 The Nuthatch makes a small entrance through the bark of a dead snag, then 

 usually, rather than burrow into the stump itself, they scooped out an irregular 

 cavity by removing the soft wood that generally lies just under tlie bark. This 

 burrow ran a crooked course but generally extended 10 or 15 inches below the 

 entrance. In this cavity they placed a nest of soft fibers, moss, cotton, and 

 wool. The burrows were usually only a few feet from the ground but one was 

 found 12 feet up. * * * On one occasion when the bark was pulled away 

 exposing a nest while the female sat upon it, she could not be made to leave until 

 pushed off with my finger. 



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