A Nuthatch's Nest 



BY FRANK I. ANTES. Canandaigua. N. Y. 



TROLLING through the woods one day early last April, my 

 attention was attracted by a pair of White-breasted Nuthatches 

 which had nesting material in their bills. As I watched them, 

 one of the pair flew to a dead tree and disappeared in a hole 

 about twenty-five or thirty feet from the ground. In a moment 

 the bird reappeared but without the nesting material, and I 

 knew I had found the nest. I resolved on the spot to come two or three 

 times a week and watch the birds at their nesting, but I was unavoidably 

 detained and was not able to visit the nest again for about two weeks; by 

 this time the incubation was well under way, and, although the male Nut- 

 hatch did not brood the eggs, he brought food to the female twice during 

 the fifteen minutes that I remained near. 



As far as I know, the eggs did not hatch until the 8th of May, when I 

 discovered both birds carrying food into the nest. The female continued 

 to brood them, however, until May ii. By the last week in May they 

 were old enough to climb to the edge of the nest for food, and from that 

 time on I kept close watch of them, expecting almost every day to find that 

 they had gone; but it looked as though they had taken up permanent 

 quarters in that tree. I would go quietly into the woods and level my glass 

 on the nest-hole; all would appear quiet and I would say to myself, ''They 

 have gone at last," when one of the parent birds would alight near the 

 nest -hole and instantly up would come five or six hungry mouths ready for 

 food. The day came at length for their departure, but I am sorry to say 

 I was not on hand. Everything was as usual on the 30th of May, but 

 when I visited the nest on June 3, the young had flown and the home in 

 the wood was deserted. 



A Prize Offered 



Bird -Lore ofifers to its Young Observers of fourteen years and under 

 a prize of a book or books, to the value of two dollars, for the best article 

 on winter bird -life. This article must be based on personal observation and 

 tell not only of the birds seen but something of what they were seen to do. 

 It may contain from 400 to 700 words and should be sent to the editor at 

 Englewood, N. J., not later than January 10, 1904. 



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