374 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



was finished but empty. There were three eggs on May 6, and six on May 13. 

 The birds hatched and reared their young in safety, but they did not return to 

 the oTove in 1899. On June 25 of that year Mr. Ford met with three Brown 

 Creepers at Hanover, Massachusetts, " travelhng from tree to tree together, in 

 family fashion." 



In an interesting article ^ on the breeding of the Brown Creeper, Mr. F. 

 H. Kennard and Mr. F. B. McKechnie report the recent finding of no less than 

 five nests of this species in the neighborhood of Boston. One of these nests, 

 containing young, was found in Canton on May 28, 1903. Of the other four, 

 all of which had full sets of eggs in May of the following year, three were in 

 Canton and one in Brookline. To the above records Dr. C. W. Townsend has 

 added one for the town of Hamilton, in Essex County, where he found a pair of 

 birds nesting in May, 1904.^ 



235. Sitta carolinensis Lath. 

 White-breasted Nuthatch. White-bellied Nuthatch. 



Permanent resident ; common in autumn, not uncommon in winter, rare in summer. 



NESTING dates. 



April 19 — 25. 



The favorite breeding haunts of the White-bellied Nuthatch are ancient 

 woods of oak, chestnut or maple where the trees are of the largest size and 

 more or less gone to decay. There are few woods of this character in the 

 Cambridge Region, and most of the White-breasted Nuthatches which we see 

 here occur in early autumn, during the southward migration, when, for several 

 weeks in succession, the birds are sometimes rather common and conspicuous, 

 often appearing in orchards near houses and in the large elms which shade our 

 city streets. They are not uncommon in wintei", also, especially in the suburbs 

 of Cambridge, but ever since I can remember, they have been rare in summer. 



On April 19, 1865, Mr. Daniel C. French and I took a set of seven fresh 

 eggs of the White-breasted Nuthatch near Gray's Woods, Cambridge, and on 



IF. H. Kennaid and F. B. McKechnie, Auk, XXII, 1905, 183-193. 



2 C. W. Townsend, Memoirs of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, no. HI. Birds of Essex County, 

 Massachusetts, 1905, 307. 



