2 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



hours. At this time his deportment toward his mate changes also. 

 All through the winter the pair has lived not far apart, feeding within 

 hearing of each other, but the male has paid little attention to his 

 mate ; in fact, on the f^od shelf he has shown dominance over her ; 

 but now in the lengthening, warmer days of spring he becomes actively 

 engaged over her comfort. A real courtship begins : he carries food 

 to her and places it in her bill, he stores bits of nut in crevices of bark 

 for her convenience, and he often addresses his singing directly to her. 

 Standing back to her, he bows slowly downward as he sings, then in 

 the interval before another song he straightens up, then bows as he 

 sings again. The songs come with perfect regularity over and over 

 again and can thus be recognized even in the distance as the courtship 

 song. 



We may imagine what a changing color scheme is presented to the 

 female bird, if, as his song invites her to do, she glance his way — the 

 black of his crown and his rough raised mane, then the blue-gray of his 

 back, then the variegated black and white pattern of his expanded tail, 

 then, perhaps, at the end of his bow, a flash of ruddy brown. At other 

 times he approaches the female more aggressively, strutting before her 

 with stretched-out neck and flattened crown, a pose of intimidation. 



The change from the passive behavior of the winter months to active 

 courtship takes place in New England early in April and indicates the 

 advent of the nesting activities. 



Nesting. — Speaking of eastern Massachusetts, William Brewster 

 (1906) says: "The favorite breeding haunts of the White-bellied Nut- 

 hatch are ancient woods of oak, chestnut or maple where the trees are 

 of the largest size and more or less gone to decay." In these surround- 

 ings the bird commonly builds its nest high up in a tall tree, either 

 in a natural cavity or in an old woodpecker's hole, or, in an orchard, 

 it may make use of a knothole in an apple tree. 



Edward H. Forbush (1929) states that nuthatches sometimes nest 

 in a cavity excavated by the birds themselves in decayed wood. Such 

 instances, however, must be of rare occurrence, for William Brew- 

 ster once told me that he had never known of a case. 



Mr. Bent (MS.) describes a nest "about 30 feet from the ground 

 near the top of a large crooked swamp maple that stood near the end 

 of a strip of woods on a private estate. The cavity was a rotted-out 

 crevice in a nearly horizontal branch. The opening was too narrow 

 for me to insert my small hand and had to be enlarged. The nesting 

 material consisted of a small handful of soft fur that looked like 

 rabbit fur, but nothing else ; the cavity was very small and not over 

 a foot deep." 



Thomas D. Burleigh (1931) says of the bird in the mountainous 

 regions of central Pennsylvania : 



