32 NESTS AND EGGS OF N. A. BIRDS. 



twigs, down, leaves of plants, and feathers, covering the outside 

 with thorns, till it becomes a mass as large as a man's head, or 900 

 by 5 50 inches outside, the cavity 4.50 by 2.70, with an opening in 

 one side, just large enough for the bird to enter. *** 



There were in all cases four eggs [others say four to six], pale 

 blue, with numerous small brown spots, chiefly near the large end, 

 though some had very few spots and were much paler; size, 0.60 

 by 0.44 inch. In one nest which I watched they hatched in 

 about ten days, and in two weeks more the young were ready to 

 leave the nest."— Coues, Birds of the Colorado Valley, pp. 

 130, 131- 



FAMILY Sittidas.— Nuthatches. 



51. sitta carolinensis. 

 WHITE BELLIED I^UTHATCH. 



This species usually select for their nesting place the decayed 

 trunk of a tree. In this they construct a round perforation in which 

 they make their nest. These nesting-places often extend to the 

 depth of fifteen, twenty and sometimes thirty inches. 



On June 8th, 1880, I examined a nest which was in a tali trunk 

 of a tree about twenty-five feet from the ground. I succeeded in 

 gaining entrance to it by chopping for considerable time with a 

 hatchet, at a distance of twenty inches below the original entrance 

 of the Nuthatches. When the cavity was reached I found that the 

 bottom of the nest was yet about five inches below the entrance 

 which I had made. This nest was composed of chicken feathers, 

 hair and a few dry leaves loosely thrown together. The eggs were 

 four, which I believe is the usual number. These were of a beau- 

 tiful roseate tinge thickly covered with spots and blotches of a red- 

 dish or rusty-brown, mixed with a. slight tinge of purple. They 

 measure .80 by .62. This bird inhabits the United States and Brit- 

 ish Provinces; west to the Valley of the Missouri. They are often 

 improperly called Sap-Suckers. 



51^. sitta carolinensis aculeata. 

 SLENDER-BILLED NUTHATCH. 



This bird inhabits the "Middle and Western Provinces, United 

 States; south to Cordova, Mexico. The nidification of the Nut- 



