SMALL COUNTRY NEIGHBORS 399 



looking out over the Sound, I heard the unmistakable 

 " ank-ank " of nuthatches from a young elm at one cor- 

 ner of the house. I strolled over, expecting to find the 

 white-bellied nuthatch, which is rather common on Long 

 Island. But instead there were a couple of red-bellied 

 nuthatches, birds familiar to me in the Northern woods, 

 but which I had never before seen at Sagamore Hill. 

 They were tame and fearless, running swiftly up and 

 down the tree-trunk and around the limbs while I stood 

 and looked at them not ten feet away. The two younger 

 boys ran out to see them; and then we hunted up their 

 picture in Wilson. I find, by the way, that Audubon's 

 and Wilson's are still the most satisfactory large orni- 

 thologies, at least for nature lovers who are not special- 

 ists; of course any attempt at serious study of our birds 

 means recourse to the numerous and excellent books and 

 pamphlets by recent observers. Bendire's large work 

 gives admirable biographies of all the birds it treats of; 

 unfortunately it was never finished. 



In May, 1907, two pairs of robins built their substan- 

 tial nests, and raised their broods, on the piazza at Saga- 

 more Hill; one over the transom of the north hall door 

 and one over the transom of the south hall door. An- 

 other pair built their nest and raised their brood on a 

 rafter in the half-finished new barn, quite undisturbed by 

 the racket of the carpenters who were finishing it. A pair 

 of scarlet tanagers built near the tennis ground; the male 

 kept in the immediate neighborhood all the time, flaming 

 among the branches, and singing steadily until the last 

 part of July. To my ears the song of the tanager is like 



