Gbe OTarbler 



53 



larly added at all times after the first choice of the home. Material is often 

 brought to the nest as late as mid-incubation time. The female seems to be 

 the enlarger of the home. Often one may see her, after he has found her 

 nest, coming out to meet her mate, as he comes with provender. Having 

 lovingly received his tribute, she is apt to give herself a little outing ; ruff- 

 ling her feathers, twisting her tail, and giving sundry ventriloquial little 

 vocal evidences of her satisfaction. (These actions and sounds not infre- 

 quently betray her home.) Straying a bit away from her precious eggs little 

 Madame will suddenly return ; bearing, mayhap, a great wad of pellet-hair : 

 so great, indeed, that she sometimes drops it beneath her door, unwittingly. 

 Figures III and IV portray what seems a quite unusual nesting site of the Nut- 

 hatch of the Rocky Mountain Region. The stump in question was a much 

 decayed one amid others on the slope of a shale hill, beneath the shelter of 

 yet-standing pines. The bottom of the nest was but a few inches above the 

 ground ; and the cavity but about nine inches in height. The entrance was 

 very irregular ; and the cavity still more so. It appeared to have been made 

 a year previous; apparently by Chickadees. The containing nest was 

 beautifully made ; and the blackish hair of which it mostly consisted made 



FIGURE III. — UNUSUAL NESTING SITE 



