220 THE NUTHATCH 



unfortunate human beings whose lot may be cast in the slums, when 

 compared with their more successful brethren in suburbia. 



In the accompanying photograph by Mr. Farren, a box has also 

 been chosen as a nesting-place. Here not only is the hole in the 

 door partially closed, but a considerable amount of cement was put 

 between the box and the tree, some of which is visible on the box lid. 

 As a rule the nest is largely composed of dry leaves or very finely 

 shredded fir-bark the inner fibre which is laid bare when a piece of 

 the outer bark happens to be torn aside. Sometimes there is quite a 

 long passage between the entrance hole and the actual nest. 



When the young are a few days old they crowd to the entrance as 

 soon as their parents approach. This year (1910) I received a message 

 from a keeper telling me to come at once if I wished to secure photo- 

 graphs of a pair of nuthatches, " because the young were almost ready 

 to fly." The nest was in the trunk of an evergreen oak, some twenty 

 feet from the ground. I was also told that the entrance had not been 

 plastered with mud ; and it was only when I climbed up, and scratched 

 away some of the plaster with a knife, that I could be certain that the 

 hole had been partially filled, so exactly did the bark and plaster har- 

 monise. Yet, curiously enough, this difference in composition showed 

 distinctly in the photograph ; another instance of the well-known fact 

 that the camera reveals more than is seen by the naked eye. When I 

 looked into the nest, far from being ready to fly, the little nuthatches 

 were not even feathered ; but, the moment either of their parents 

 alighted on the tree, they were aware of the fact, and crowded to the 

 entrance so as to get served first, if possible. 



When bringing food, the old birds would alight higher up the 

 tree- trunk and climb down with short, sharp, audible jerks ; and evi- 

 dently the fledglings listened for this sound, which meant as much to 

 them as a dinner-gong does to our own august but occasionally hungry 

 selves. 



The food of the young consisted largely of flies and small green 

 caterpillars, which were usually brought one at a time by both 



