104 BfRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



soft green woods as a peculiarly peaceful caress- 

 ing- note, and his soft yang, yang, yang is full of 

 woodsy suggestions. In the last of June I noted 

 the sweet yah-ha of the nuthatch, the same yang, 

 yang, yang, and his nearest approach to a song, 

 the rapid yah-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha. In August and 

 September the nasal yank is sometimes run into 

 an accelerated half song. Thoreau gives the or- 

 dinary winter note as quah, quah, and while that 

 expresses the mellowness of the note" -on some 

 days better than yank, they are both descriptive. 

 But though certain notes may predominate in 

 given months, on a cold January morning I have 

 heard from a flock of nuthatches every note that 

 I had ever heard before at any time of the year. 

 Like the other members of the quartette, the nut- 

 hatch nests in holes in trees or stumps while its 

 lightly spotted eggs, six or eight in number, are 

 laid on a soft, f elty lining. 



I am often surprised by discovering the nut- 

 hatch at work in places where I despair of finding 

 any birds. One day in December the snow-cov- 

 ered woods seemed to have fallen into the silent 

 slumber of a child. Not a breath came to blow 

 the white cap from the vireo's nest, or scatter the 

 heaped-up snow that rested like foam on the slen- 

 der twigs. The snow that had drifted against the 

 side of the tree trunks clung as it had fallen. In 

 silence the branches arched under their freight ; 

 the rich ochraceous beech leaves hung in masses 

 under the snow not a leaf rustled. 



