THE PYGMY NUTHATCH. 293 



tree, Inil onh' to come back as cit'ten to the same fascinating belt. l"'inall_v. 

 tioni a new \antage point I made out the hole, a very fresh 1 me in an oi)en 

 stretch of bark about one Inindred and twenty feet up. As I looked, one 

 bird entered the excavation and remained, while the other mounted guard at 

 the entrance. After about fi\'e minutes of this the tiny miner emerged and 

 the other, the male, I tiiink, took her ])lace. His dtity appeared to be to 

 remove the chii)s. for he stuck his head nut at the entrance momenlaril}-, and 

 one imagined, ratlier than saw at that height, the tiny flashes of falling white. 

 All very romantic, but not a good "risk" from the insurance man's stand])oint. 



These Nuthatches must delight in work. They will si)end a week in 

 laborious excavation, and then abandon the claim for no ajjparent reason. 

 Perhaps it is an outcrop])ing of that same instijict of restlessness which makes 

 Wrens build "decoy" ne.sts. One such finished nest we found to be slia]:)ed 

 not unlike a nursing bottle, a bottle with a bent neck. The entrance was one and 

 three-eighths inches across, the ca\ity three inches wide, one and a half deep, and 

 eight long (keeping in mind the analogy of the bottle resting on its flat side). 



The birds do not always nest at ungetatable heights. A nest taken near 

 Tacoma on the 8th of June, 1906, was found at a height of only seven feet in 

 a small fir stump. The wood was very rotten, and the eggs rested only four 

 inches below the entrance. The nest-lining in this instance was a heavy mat 

 an inch in thickness, and was composed of vegetable matter — wood fiber, soft 

 grasses, etc. — without hair of any sort, as would surely have been the case 

 with that of a Chestnut-backed Chickadee, for which it was at first taken. 



The Nuthatches appear to leave their eggs during the warmer hoin-s of 

 the day, and one must await the return of the truant owners if he would be 

 sure of identification. One mark, but not infallible, is the presence of ])itch. 

 smeared all around and especially below the nesting hole. The use of this is 

 not quite certain, but Mr. Bowles's hazard is a good one: viz., that it serves 

 to ward ofif the ants, which are often a pest to hole-nesting birds. These ants 

 not only annoy the sitting bird, who is presumably able to defend herself, but 

 they sometimes destroy unguarded eggs, or young birds. 



No. 11,3. 



PVCiMY Nl THATCH. 



.\. O. U. No. 730. Sitta pygmaea \ igors. 



Synonym. — C.\liforxi.\ Xitii.xtcii ( early name). 



Description. — Adults: Crown, nape, and sides of head to below eye grayish 

 olive rir (p]ivc-i)r(iwn. a huffy white s]K)t on hiiid-ncck ("nearly concealed in fresh 

 plumage* ; lores and region behind eye (bounding the olive) blackish: remaining 

 upperparts plumbeous, browning (brownish slate) on flight feathers, etc., beconi- 



