86 



THE OOLOGIST. 



red light, he seemed in his happiest 

 mood. At such a time, seated upon his 

 favorite hmb, he commanded the atten- 

 tion of a large audience, which he would 

 first please, then astonish, then disap- 

 point, then enrapture, then amuse, and 

 finally, just as twilight was fading into 

 night, as if it was a tail-piece to his 

 opera-bouffe, he would convulse his hear- 

 ers with laiighter by mimicking the 

 crow of a young cochin rooster confined 

 in a coop near by ; after which he would 

 suddenly drop from the tree to the 

 bushes beneath, where his mate sat upon 

 the nest. In the Spring of 1873 he 

 failed to return, to the great disappoint- 

 ment of many friends." 



The Red-bellied Nuthatch 

 Sitta canadensis 

 Is a resident in New England, says El- 

 liott Cones in his " Birds of the North- 

 west," "breeding abundantly in . the 

 northern portions." "■ I found it build- 

 ing a nest," says Audubon, "near East- 

 port, Maine, May 19th, before the Blue- 

 bird made its appearance and while 

 much ice remained on the northern ex- 

 posures. The nest is dug in a low, dead 

 stump, seldom more than four feet from 

 the ground, both male and female work- 

 ing by turns until they have got to the 

 depth of about fourteen inches." 



Mr. Manly Hardy in the Nuttall Bull- 

 e«iw, writing of the nesting habits of this 

 bird, says : " June 2, I found a nest on 

 Little Deer Isle, Penobscot Bay. It was 

 in a white birch stub some ten feet from 

 the ground ; the entrance was one and 

 one-half inches wide by one and one- 

 fourth deep. The hole ran slanting for 

 three inches, and then straight down for 

 four inches more. It contained six eggs 

 which were white ground witli small 

 specks of reddish brown on the small 

 end, and heavily spotted with the same 

 on the larger end ; a great deal more 

 brown than the eggs of the white-bellied 

 nuthatch. Incubation had not com- 



menced. For two inches below the cen- 

 ter of the hole, and for half an inch on 

 either side, the birch bark was coated 

 with fir balsam. June 20, I found 

 another in Holden, Me., which the young 

 had just left. It was in a poplar stub 

 some twelve feet from the ground. Hole 

 one and one-half inches by one inch, 

 slanting down four inches, and then four 

 inches straight down. This hole had 

 fir balsam one-foiirth of an inch thick 

 for two inches below the hole, and then 

 thinner, and running down in large 

 drops for twenty-one inches below the 

 hole. The pitch extended an inch on 

 either side, and more than three inches 

 above the hole in all more than could 

 be heaped upon a large table-spoon. It 

 was stuck full of the red breast-feathers 

 of the bird, but there were no signs of 

 any insect having been fastened by it. 

 The nest had been occupied two years. 

 Near both the nests were other holes 

 not so deep, probably used for one of 

 the birds to oceiipy while the other is 

 sitting, as is the case with raost wood- 

 peckers. Both nests were composed of 

 fine short grasses and roots. I notice 

 that in making the hole the bird makes 

 a circle of holes round a piece about as 

 large as a ten cent piece, and then takes 

 out the piece ol bark entire. I have one 

 nest which has near it a piece circled in 

 this manner, but not removed. My 

 friend, Mr. Harry Merrill, of Bangor, 

 found a nest last year surrounded by 

 pitch just as in those found by me. So 

 that it seems certaiu that in most cases 

 they do this, though for what purpose 

 I am as yet unable to determine. The 

 pitch certainly was placed there by the 

 birds, as neither birch nor poplar con- 

 tains pitch, and there were no overhang- 

 ing trees from which a di'op could come. 

 I think it would take the bird several 

 days of steady work to obtain what waF. 

 around the nest in the i)oiDlar. I think 

 that more nests would be found if people 

 did not mistake them for holes of the 

 downy woodpecker, which are of the 



