ROCKY MOUNTAIN NUTHATCH 15 



ently shaped bill, and the gray and fawn color instead of pure white 

 under parts distinguish it. In nelsoni the white of the tail-feathers is 

 more extended than in other forms, and, excepting Tnexicana, the fawn 

 color of the sides and abdomen of the young is more intense than in the 

 remaining subspecies of /Sitta caroUnensis.^^ 



This is the form that we found to be fairly common in the Huachuca 

 Mountains, in southern Arizona, up to about 7,000 feet, where we saw 

 it occasionally and found one nest. Mr. Swarth (IQOtlb) says that 

 it is "resident throughout the mountains, though most abundant in 

 the higher pine regions. During the cold weather it is quite common 

 in the oaks along the base of the mountains, but though a few breed 

 there, the majority of them ascend to a higher altitude in the summer." 



In New Mexico, according to Mrs. Bailey (1928), it "is found in 

 summer mainly from 7,000 to 8,000 feet. Few species are so strictly 

 confined as this to a definite belt of altitude." In fall it wanders some- 

 times below but mainly above its breeding range. In Colorado, 

 Sclater (1912) says that it "is a common resident throughout the year, 

 being found chiefly among the foothills and in the pinon and cedar 

 zone in winter, and at higher elevations, nearly up to timber line, in 

 summer, but it has been found breeding as low as 5,300 feet at Little- 

 ton near Denver." In extreme northeastern California, in the Lassen 

 Peak region, Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) found the Rocky 

 Mountain nuthatch resident in the "higher coniferous forests." They 

 observed it in yellow pine, white fir, and lodgepole pine. Aretas A. 

 Saunders (1921) says that, in western Montana, it "breeds in conifer- 

 ous forests in the Transition, Canadian and Hudsonian zones, show- 

 ing preference for yellow pine forests in the Transition, about the 

 foothills of the mountains, or for white-bark pine in the Hudsonian." 



Nesting. — Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) rfound a nest, on 

 May 21, 1925, on the west side of Eagle Lake in the Lassen Peaik 

 region, "in a water-killed pine stub on the lake shore." They report 

 another nest "in the stub-forest near Eagle Lake Resort. It was one 

 and one-half meters up in an old woodpecker nest hole on the southeast 

 side of a stump three meters high." The birds were feeding young 

 at the time, June 12, carrying in food "at intervals sometimes as short 

 as one minute. * * * Much of each bird's time was spent in flying 

 into the air and catching flying insects." 



Rev. P. B. Peabody (1906) published some photographs of unu- 

 sually low Wyoming nests of the Rocky Mountain nuthatch ; in one 

 case, in a low, rotten stump in an open space, "the bottom of the nest 

 was but a few inches above the ground ; and the cavity but about 9 

 inches in height. The entrance was very irregular; and the cavity 

 still more so. It appeared to have been made a year previous ; appar- 

 ently by Chickadees. The containing nest was beautifully made ; and 

 the blackish hair of which it mostly consisted made delicate contrast 



