602 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



any kind of a dead stub may be sometimes used, as I have 

 found nests in poplar, maple, beech, elm and birch stubs, the 

 real popular site selected by these birds near Bangor is a bal- 

 sam fir stub with the bark still adhering and the inner wood 

 rotten and punky. When they have discovered such a site 

 as this latter in a stub about six inches through at the bot- 

 tom and about sixteen feet high, they are really happy, 

 provided that this is in rather dense, deep evergreen woods. 

 To begin operations a series of small holes are made in the 

 bark so as to remove the central portion entire and leave a 

 hole about an inch in diameter. Then both birds, working 

 in brief spells, excavate a hole in the wood within, extending 

 straight in about two inches and downward to a depth of five 

 to eight or nine inches. When completed a mass of finely 

 shredded fibrous inner bark is placed in the hole, and some 

 nests are also warmly lined with feathers. Occasionally eggs 

 are laid on the fine chips at the bottom, no nest being made. 



I have observed Nuthatches working at a hole in late March 

 which subsequent visits in April showed had not since been 

 worked on, and in May they would resume work and finish 

 the nest and lay in it. It is a rather common habit of theirs 

 to work on a nest in the early spring and then leave it merely 

 begun to return and complete it later on. I have known them 

 to complete a nest from the very beginning and lay the first 

 egg within a week, while again nests were worked on more or 

 less constantly for two or three weeks before they ceased build- 

 ing and commenced to lay, while again it would be fully 

 two months from the time the first work was done until 

 the eggs were laid, but such nests were not worked on 

 for many days at a time until finally real constant work was 

 commenced a few days before they really intended to lay. 



The nests in the balsam firs are built rather quicker than 

 those in the harder, sounder kind of woods. The height of 

 the nest entrance from the ground is exceeding variable, often 

 only five to fifteen feet up, again fully seventy feet from the 



