DESCRIPTIVE LIST 323 



15 to April 15, and has been noted in ten winters during the past twenty-four. 

 Unless one is observing birds pretty closely, it is easily overlooked, the more so as 

 it is often local in its occurrence. 



This nuthatch has been recorded as a rare resident at Highlands by Boynton, 

 and as common and breeding on Black Mountain by Cairns. Rhoads heard it on 

 Roan Mountain in June, 1895, and Collett tells us he has seen two in the Big 

 Snowbird Mountains in Graham County. C. S. Brimley saw some near Double 

 Spring Gap, Haywood County, on May 25, 1913. In the summer of 1911 Bruner 

 and Feild observed it on both Roan Mountain and Mount Mitchell. Cairns found 

 a nest on Black Mountain on May 10, 1886, in a dead stub twenty feet from the 

 ground, and another six feet up, each of which contained four fresh eggs. 



It excavates its nesting cavity in a dead tree, and lines it with grass. The eggs 

 number from four to six. They have a white ground-color, very thickly spotted 

 with reddish brown. Size .60 x .50. 



328. Sitta pusilla (Lath.}. BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH. 



Description. Ashy blue above; whitish below; top of head grayish brown, a white spot on 

 nape; under tail-feathers black, tipped with grayish. L., 4.50; W., 2.60; T., 1.25. 



Range. South Atlantic and Gulf States, north to Virginia. 



Range in North Carolina. Resident in the central and eastern portions of the State, not known 

 to occur in the mountains. 



Throughout the State, east of the mountains, this is the most common nuthatch, 

 and particularly is this the case in pine woods. It is much given to traveling 

 in bands. In spring a pair will select some suitable fence-post, tall stump, or dead 

 limb, of the proper degree of softness from decay, and begin industriously to exca- 

 vate a hole in which to nest. Several holes may be commenced and abandoned 

 before one entirely to their taste is found. The final choice is dug to a depth of 

 about six inches below the irregular entrance hole, and this is lined with strips of 

 bark, chips, leaves, cotton, and the wings of the seeds of pine. The peculiar pun- 

 gent odor of the bird is imparted to the nest. The eggs are four to six in number, 

 usually laid about the end of March or beginning of April, though belated nests 

 have been taken as late as May 15. Their ground color is white, spotted heavily 

 with reddish brown and lavender, the markings being usually rather evenly dis- 

 tributed. Size .60 x .50. The height of the nest varies from eighteen inches to 

 twelve feet from the ground. Pearson found a pair of these birds excavating a 

 nesting hole in a pine stump in open woods near Greensboro, on May 5, 1893. 



"I made some notes in 1888 on the time occupied by this species in preparing 

 dwellings for occupation. The first pair I noted had finished digging out the hole 

 and had commenced to line it on March 22. Sixteen days later the nest contained 

 four fresh eggs. Pair No. 2 had just begun building on April 16, and in ten days 

 more the nest was finished and fresh eggs laid. Pair No. 3 worked for twenty-two 

 days on one hole, and when I then lost patience and broke it out to see what they 

 had done, they had not even started to line it. They then commenced on another 

 stump, and in twenty-two more days had the excavation completed, lined, and three 

 eggs laid. Pair No. 4 dug a hole, lined it, and laid three eggs in thirteen days." 

 C. S. BRIMLEY. 



