BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



375 



May 29, 1889, I found a nest containing young in an orchard just to the west- 

 ward of Mount Auburn, while Mr. N. A. Francis obtained a set of nine fresh 

 eggsi near Payson Park on May i, 1893. All three nests were built in holes 

 in old apple trees. In 1901 a pair reared their brood in the hollow trunk of a 

 large maple in Norton's Woods — where Dr. Walter Woodman met with the 

 species in summer between 1866 and 1874. At most of the localities just 

 mentioned, as well as in the oak woods between Belmont and Waverley, and in 

 those lying to the north of the Lyman estate in Waltham, I have seen White- 

 bellied Nuthatches during the breeding season on occasions other than those 

 above referred to, but I cannot remember ever meeting with more than a single 

 pair during any one summer. 



236. Sitta canadensis Linn. 

 Red-breasted Nuthatch. Red-bellied Nuthatch. Canada Nuthatch. 



Of irregular occurrence, sometimes abundant in autumn or common in winter, occasion- 

 ally found in summer. 



seasonal occurrence. 

 August 15 — April 15. (Summer.) 



There are years when no Canada Nuthatches can be found in the Cam- 

 bridge Region, but at least a few are reported nearly every autumn and during 

 seasons when our coniferous trees are loaded with ripening cones and those of 

 northern New England are nearly or quite barren, the birds sometimes appear 

 in multitudes, beginning to arrive as early as August or even the latter part of 

 July and reaching their maximuin abundance in September or October. As a 

 rule most of them go further southward before the close of November, but a 

 good many often remain through the winter and occasionally they are almost as 

 numerous at the latter season as they ever are in autumn. 



On first arriving from the north these Nuthatches occur nearly every- 

 where — even on barren points or islands along the seacoast, where they may be 

 started in beds of beach grass or watched climbing over the surfaces of lichen- 

 covered boulders and cliffs. Their stay in such places is brief, of course, for 

 they soon pass on to the southward or seek more congenial haunts in the near- 



1 In the collection of N. A. Francis. 



