Oct. 1888.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



149 



Nesting of the ^Vater Ouzel. 



I!Y WM. v.. SJIITII, LOVEI.AXIJ, COI.OKAIX). 



Awiiy iij' towards ttic licail of our rivers iu 

 Color;nl(), whole the walcis eoiin; ilowii hi a 

 succession of leaps, where the massive roc-lis 

 tliat hiy in its path are nearlj- ohseuri'd by its 

 spray, lliere will In: found the greatest little 

 wonder of our feathered friends, the Water 

 Ouzel. In tlie depths of winter, wlieu most 

 birds liave gone soutli, or sought souk; secluded 

 shelter, our little songster will be found at his 

 post. Although man)' times Jack Frost has 

 roofed his abode n(!arly over, leaving but a 

 small hole not much larger than the bird itself, 

 yet there you may see him standing, after peer- 

 ing into it a few moments, tlieu like a flash and 

 he is gone, and only perhaps a half minute 

 elapses, and like a black cork up lie bobs, after 

 eourtesying two or three times, down he goes 

 again into the water that seems almost impossi- 

 ble a small bird could live iu, much more dive 

 against, so strong is its mad rush, yet he comes 

 up safe every time. 



I hardly think it would be possilile to tind a 

 boy that would throw a stone at this little fel- 

 low at such times, after watching how hard his 

 lot is to pick up a living during the w inter. All 

 his food he has to jiick up from the bottom of 

 the river, which appears to be a small worm 

 that is numerous and adhering to the rocks. 

 Ilis only propelling power lies in his wings 

 which he uses very dexterously. 



As soon as the ice is melted in spring, then 

 you will hear him above the loar of the ele- 

 ments, singing beautifully. He no longer con- 

 fines his haunts to one locality, but is busy 

 looking up a mate to start in housekeeping, 

 which they do early iu June. 



The Water Ouzel's uest is a wonderful piece 

 of architecture. One that I took last season 

 was placed on a beam under a bridge that spans 

 the Big Thompson Kiver iu Estes I'ark. It 

 was oval in .shape, entirely domed over, and 

 built of fresh green moss and roots of the 

 same, and it appeared to be water iiroof. It 

 was externally about thirteen inches long and 

 about ten inches high by ten inches wide. The 

 walls appeared to be about two inches thick. 

 The aperture was situated about the middle of 

 the largest side and was about two inches iu 

 diameter. T"he nest did not appear to be lined 

 with any diflerent material, but the whole was 

 woven together woniierf ully strong anil artistic- 

 ally. Some boys liad previously taken the eggs 



which I afterwards secured. They were white, 

 and had a very rough surface and averaged 

 about one inch long liy three (|uartcrs of an 

 inch wide. 



The Nesting of the Brown-headed 



Nuthatch at Raleigh, N. C, 



in 1888. 



IJY C. .S. UlilMI.KV, 1!A1-I;i<;il, N. c. 



This past season has added considerably to 

 mj' experience with these birds, but in most re- 

 spects it has varied so much with regard to indi- 

 vidual pairs that I cannot make any deductions 

 to help me in the future in collecting their eggs, 

 and therefore 1 will give my experience in 

 detail. 



First. On March 22, I found a pair lining a 

 newly dug out hole about four feet high in a 

 small pine stub in a branch. On April (Jth there 

 were four eggs in the nest, and next day 1 took 

 a full set of six eggs. This made fifteen days 

 from commencing to build to taking a fresh 

 set — supposing they had only just started 

 building when I found them. The nest was 

 some six inches deep in the hole, and was com- 

 posed of pine seed leaves, bark strips, chips, 

 some pieces of colored wool and a few feathers. 



Second. On April 2, I found a pair working 

 ou an old blackened stub in a corn field. They 

 were very industriously digging, and I allowed 

 them twenty-oae days to lay a full set; and 

 then on April 23, to the great alarm of the birds, 

 who made themselves very much excited over 

 the matter, laboriously cut out the hole, and 

 found to my disgust, they hadn't even begun 

 to line it. On May 2, this same pair of birds 

 were again hard at work digging on another old 

 stub not tar from the first one, and this time I 

 was more successful. Ou May 15th I took a 

 slightly incubated set of four eggs from the 

 nest. The nest was composed of bark slireds, 

 and pieces of corn shucks. Both holes this 

 pair had dug out were about the same height, a 

 little over six feet. 



Third. On April 16, I found a pair just com- 

 mencing to line aliole in a fence post, but did 

 not expect to get any eggs from it as it was iu 

 a place where the small boy was almost certain 

 to find it. However, on looking in the hole ou 

 April 20, I was delighted to find five fresh eggs 

 which I took, although the bird might very 

 probably have laid another had they been left. 



This nest was six feet high, and unlike all 

 the others, was not right below the entrance 



