68 Bird Comrades 



way. He is like a small woodpecker who has broken 

 loose from the woodpecker's somewhat narrow laws of 

 progression, preferring to be a law unto himself. 



" Without a touch of brilliant color, the nuthatch is a 

 beautiful bird on account of the pleasing softness and 

 harmonious disposition of his tints; and, in like manner, 

 without being a songster in the strict sense of the word, 

 his voice is so clear and far-reaching and of so pleasing a 

 quality, that it often gives more life and spirit to the 

 woods and orchards and avenues he frequents than that 

 of many true melodists. This is more especially the case 

 in the month of March, before the migratory songsters 

 have arrived, when he is most loquacious. A high 

 pitched, clear, ringing note, repeated without variation 

 several times, is his most often-heard call or song. He 

 will sometimes sit motionless on his perch, repeating this 

 call at short intervals, for half an hour at a time. Another 

 bird at a distance will be doing the same, and the two 

 appear to be answering one another. He also has 

 another call, not so loud and piercing, but more melo- 

 dious : a double note, repeated two or three times, with 

 something liquid and gurgling in the sound, suggesting 

 the musical sound of lapsing water. These various notes 

 and calls are heard incessantly until the young are 

 hatched, when the birds at once become silent." 



The nesting habits of c&sia are quite similar to those 

 of our American forms, with the following interesting 

 exception: The doorway of the cavity constituting the 

 bird's domicile is plastered tip with clay, made viscid by 



