40 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 15-No. 3 



anxiety I broke away the walls of the hollow 

 can l)e iina<;ine(l', but iina,i>inatioii fails to pic- 

 ture my feelings on tindino- the inmate to be a 

 great gray spider nearly as big as my fist. 

 That spider no longer roams the solitude of 

 that creek bottom. 



,stub after stub felt the blows of my trusty 

 stick, but for some time nothing resulted. 

 Many a new-looking hole was broken into in 

 hopes of a Chickadee or Nuthatch only to be 

 fouud to contain a large chunk of emptiness. 

 At length on breaking into a liolc four feet 

 up a gum .stub, a bird was found on the nest 

 inside and again visions of Tufted Tit pre- 

 sented themselves to my mind. But when I 

 got right down to it a little Carolina Chickadee 

 fluttered off her five fresh eggs, not however 

 until I had touclied her with my hand. This 

 was very likely a second laying of a pair from 

 which 1 took a set of five on April IDth. 



Ant)tlier round of blank trees until a.l3rown- 

 headed Nuthatch was seen to go into a hole 

 about ten feet high, in a small rotten willow. 

 Broke it off carefully, and lowered the top un- 

 til I could get at the hoh; — which was about 

 full of young Nuthatches, i propped up the 

 sticks as securely as I could in some bushes 

 growing alongside, and have no doubt that the 

 brood was successfully raised. 



That's all — except one of the longest, 

 hardest, old-time tramps back home after an 

 absence of eleven hours, with nothing to eat 

 and nothing stronger than creek water to 

 drink during the interval. //. II. BrlmU'ij. 

 Raleiftii, N. C. 



Nesting of the Red-breasted Nut- 

 hatch in Orono, Maine. 



Having seen very few notes on the nesting of 

 this species (Stttn rdixnlcnsis) I thought my 

 observations for the spring of ISSi) might be of 

 some interest. I have found this biid quite 

 abundant in the woods for several winters 

 l)ast: but, as T have seen only one or two 

 individuals in the late spring or summer — 

 before this year — I had no idea that it nested 

 here. The reason of my seeing more this 

 si)ring may be accounted for by my having to 

 go to the woods daily. 



On the 7th of April, while in a wood-lot, 

 my attention was attracted by a tai)ping sound 

 which I thought was occasioned l)y some 

 Woodpecker. I followed the sound, and soon 

 saw a Ked-breasted Nuthatch at work on the 

 trunk of a dead tree, without branches, 



about twenty feet from the ground. I snj)- 

 posed of course that it was feeding, but 

 noticed that it kept continually at work at-one 

 place; and also seemed very persistent in its 

 woi'k and made much more noise than any 

 which 1 had watched feeding. As long as I 

 remained quiet the bird continued to work; but 

 when I moved about close to the tree it flew 

 to a neighboring tree. Before I had moved 

 away ten feet, however, it was at work again. 



On the 8th of March the bii-d was still at 

 work, and I noticed that the hole, which it 

 had begun, was almost a i^erfect circle. I 

 then made up my mind that this was to be a 

 nest. On this day I also fovnid another bird 

 at work on a similar tree about thii'ty feet 

 from where the first one w^as laboring, and 

 afterward found several others, examining 

 and testing the quality of diiferent trees; but 

 as only twt) turned out fruitful my notes will 

 be confined to the description of these. On 

 the afternoon of the same day I was disgusted 

 to see a crow fiy down and seize the bird while 

 at work on the nest found the day before. I 

 then devoted my attention to the one found in 

 the morning, which turned out better. The 

 female seemed to start the work, but after 

 the hole was well started the male did his 

 shai'c. They kejjt constantly busy as long as 

 everything was (piiet, but if an intruder made 

 much noise in approaching they would stop 

 work at once. After they got well inside, so 

 that they could detach comparatively large 

 chips, they would carry them some twenty or 

 more feet from the nest before dejiositing 

 them. They always took pains to scatter 

 them as much as possible. The lining of the 

 cavity was begun on the 2r)th of the month, 

 and 1 noticed that the male had nothing to 

 do with this. If he brought any material 

 the female always relieved him of it at the 

 entrance to the nest and carried it inside 

 herself. 



On May 2d I thought from appearances 

 that the female was setting, as the male was 

 feeding her, while she remained in the nest. 

 I do not know whether the male took his turn 

 in setting or not. The next morning, as cer- 

 tain reasons prevented me from taking the 

 nest, and fearing that the eggs would become 

 incubated, I struck the base of the tree and 

 drove the bird Irom it. This was repeated 

 three times tliat day, and after that neither 

 bird was seen again. A section of the trunk 

 was cut out on the (Uh of the month and 

 lowered to the ground. I proceeded to cut 

 awav one side in order to get at the interior. 



