122 BIRDS'-NESTS. 



In migrating northward, the males precede the fe- 

 males by eight or ten days ; returning in the fall, the 

 females and young precede the males by about the 

 same time. 



After the woodpeckers have abandoned their nests, 

 or rather chambers, which they do after the first sea- 

 eon, their cousins, the nut-hatches, chickadees, and 

 brown creepers, fall heir to them. These birds, es- 

 pecially the creepers and nut-hatches, have many or 

 the habits of the picidce, but lack their powers of 

 bill, and so are unable to excavate a nest for them- 

 selves. Their habitation, therefore, is always second- 

 hand. But each species carries in some soft material 

 of various kinds, or, in other words, furnishes the 

 tenement to its liking. The chickadee arranges in 

 the bottom of the cavity a little mat of a light felt-like 

 substance, which looks as if it came from the hatter's, 

 but which is probably the work of numerous worms 

 or caterpillars. On this soft lining the female depos- 

 its six white eggs. 



I recently discovered one of these nests in a most 

 interesting situation. The tree containing it, a vari- 

 ety of the wild-cherry, stood upon the brink of the 

 bald summit of a high mountain. Gray, time-worn 

 rocks lay piled loosely about, or overtoppled the just 

 risible by-ways of the red fox. The trees had a half- 

 scared look, and that indescribable wiMness which 

 lurks about the tops of all remote mountains pos- 

 sessed the place. Standing there I looked down upon 

 .he back of the rr i-raileil hawk as he flew out over 



