196 General Notes. 



Nesting Habits of the Red-bellied Nuthatch. — Having been 

 observing the nesting habits of the Red-bellied Nuthatch {Sitta canaden- 

 sis), I will give the readers of the Bulletin the results of my observations. 

 June 2, I found a nest on Little Deer Isle, Penobscot Bay. It was in 

 a white-birch stub some ten feet from the ground ; the entrance was one and 

 one half inches wide by one and one fourth deep. The hole ran slanting for 

 three inches, and then straight down for four inches more. ' It contained six 

 eggs, which were white, with small specks of reddish-broAvn on the small 

 end, and heavily spotted with the same on the larger end, a great deal more 

 brown than the eggs of the White-bellied Nuthatch. Incubation had not 

 commenced. For two inches below the centre of the hole, and for half an 

 inch on either side, the birch bark was coated with fir balsam. June 20, 

 I found another in Holden, Me,, which the young had just left. It was 

 in a poplar stub some twelve feet from the ground. Hole one and one half 

 inches by one inch, slanting down four inches, and then four inches 

 straight down. This hole had fir balsam one fourth of an inch thick for 

 two inches below the hole, and then thinner, and running down in large 

 drops for twenty-one inches below the hole. The pitch extended an inch 

 on either side, and more than three inches above the hole, in all more than 

 could be heaped upon a large tablespoon. It was stuck full of the red 

 breast- feathers of the bird, but there were no signs of any insects having 

 been fastened by it. This nest had been occupied two years. Near both 

 the nests were other holes not so deep, probably used for one of the birds 

 to occupy while the other is sitting, as is the case with most Woodpeckers. 

 Both nests were composed of fine short grasses and roots. I notice that 

 in making the hole the bird makes a circle of holes round a piece about 

 as large as a ten-cent-piece, and then takes out the piece of bark entire. I 

 have one nest which has near it a piece circled in this manner, but not re- 

 moved. My friend, Mr. Harry Merrill of Bangor, found a nest last year 

 surrounded by pitch just as in those found by me. So that it seems 

 certain that in most cases they do this, though for what purpose I am 

 as yet unable to determine. The pitch certainly was placed there by 

 the birds, as neither birch nor poplar contains pitch, and there were no 

 overhanging trees from which a drop could come. I think it would take 

 the bird several days of steady work to obtain what was around the nest 

 in the poplar. I think that more nests would be found if people did not 

 mistake them for holes of the Downy Woodpecker, which are of the same 

 size, though rounder. Audubon speaks of their being placed four feet 

 from the ground ; l)ut while this is sometimes the case, they are oftener 

 ten to fifteen feet from the ground. It is easy to tell even an old nest 

 from that of either a Downy Woodpecker or Black-capped Titmouse, as the 

 Woodpecker lays directly upon fine chips, without any nest, and the Tit- 

 mouse makes a nice nest of fur and feathers, and neither place any pitch 

 round the holes, while the Nuthatch makes its nest of short fine grass 

 and j)rotects with pitch outside the hole. — Manly Haruv, Brewer, Me. 



