The Brown-headed Nuthatch 



By FRANK FORREST GANDER, Wichita, Kansas 



With Photographs by the Author 



ON THE morning of March 2 1 , I stepped ashore from a rowboat on the 

 bank of High Bluff Creek in Franklin County, Florida. My purpose 

 was a ten-days' outing in the wilderness, and I was looking for a place 

 to pitch my tent. A palmetto ridge margins the creek on each side, and it was 

 on the right-hand ridge, about a half mile or so down stream from where the 

 creek emerges from the big swamp, that I made the landing. As I walked 

 out through the grass and palmettos I passed near a fire-blackened stump 

 some eight feet or so tall, and noticing two small openings near the top, I 

 rapped smartly on the side to see if perchance I had discovered the home of 

 a flying squirrel. 



To my surprise, a small bird darted out and disappeared among the sur- 

 rounding pines. So unexpected had been its appearance and so swift its flight 



that it was gone before identification was 

 possible, so I turned my attention to the 

 hole which it had quitted. This opening 

 was 5 feet and 9 inches above the ground 

 and was 7/^inch across by 4 inches long. 

 Being unable to reach the bottom with 

 my finger, I thrust a pine straw in and 

 found it to be 4^2 inches deep, and by 

 the same method discovered there were 

 eggs in the nest but could not ascertain 

 the number. 



As it seemed an excellent opportunity 

 to secure some bird photographs, I 

 pitched my tent nearby, the while I kept 

 one eye open for my neighbor in the 

 stump. Soon she returned, and as she lit 

 against the stump, head downward, I 

 needed nothing further to tell me I had 

 happened upon a Nuthatch nest, and 

 my field glasses disclosed the brown cap 

 which completed the identification. She 

 kept up a continual twittering and fid- 

 geting, passing back and forth over the 

 hard, smooth surface of the stump, and 

 when she was finally satisfied that it was 

 safe for her to venture inside, she entered 

 head first from above the opening. 

 (328) 



"SHE LIT HEAD DOWNWARD' 



