54 



Gbe TOarbler 



delicate contrast with the pearl-white eggs. This set was of unusually neavy 

 marking ; equalled, in this respect, only by an imperfect, (or depleted ?), set 

 of two eggs found by the writer on a Tenth of June : (the date being quite 

 two weeks late, with well-incubated eggs.) One set, found, as have been 

 two others, in a site unpublished, thus-far, was most beautifully and deli- 

 cately speckled with very pale cinnamon. A medium between these two 

 "types" of markings would appear to be norm, with this Nuthatch. 



As might be inferred, from the habits of her congeners, the female 

 Nuthatch of this "breed" sits closely on her eggs. In one case of the 



FIGURE IV. — MALE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NUTHATCH ON STUMP 



writer's finding she refused to leave the nest. And when the intruder tried 

 to pry her off her treasures, to see how many there were of them, she pecked 

 his fingers vigorously. But one learns by slow degrees, that it is never at all 

 safe to generalize about these things. At times a female will leave her eggs 

 when the human observer is yet far away ; and she will continue to be wild, 

 even after her mate has entered the nest under the very nose of the human ; 

 the male continually coaxing and calling his consort ; as if to strive to show 

 her how little danger there is in the presence of a mere man ! 



During the present season the writer has sadly failed to find the homes 



