518 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



bird will not hesitate a moment to make a meal of 

 the unprotected young of any other small bird; 

 and while I have never seen bluebirds, thrushes, 

 catbirds and robins, for instance, 



PILLAGING OTHER NESTS, 



I have noticed some suspicious movements among 

 small birds which more than once has caused me 

 to think that my friends had been committing some 

 mischief. 



Once while fishing in the trout brook I was 

 conscious of a loud buzzing noise, but knowing 

 that rattlesnakes do not make that sort of a noise, 

 and that there was nothing else in the country to 

 fear, I continued to work at my leader, endeavor- 

 ing to loosen a whipped-out fly, when I noticed 

 that the guttural noise was notes of distress of a 

 nuthatch, accompanied by a loud humming noise 

 close to my head ; carefully resting my rod against 

 a white birch tree, I looked around for the cause 

 of the commotion and saw that a ruby-throated 

 humming-bird was making life 



NOT WORTH LIVING FOR A WHITE-BREASTED 

 NUTHATCH ; 



the latter seemed to hope for protection from me, 

 for it flew around my head in a bewildering man- 

 ner, trying in vain to dodge the tiny speck of 

 jeweled feathers which was pursuing it. 



The question is this: Is the nuthatch a nest- 

 robber? If not, why the vicious and persistent 



