R 



* OOLOGIST;^ 



VOL. VII. 



ALBION, N. Y., FEB., 1890. 



NO. 2 



Breeding Habits of the Brown-headed 

 Nuthatch. 



While spending a few days in Qneen 

 Anne Co., Va., in the early part of last 

 May, I had an opportunity of becoming 

 personally acquainted with this little 

 bird, which, up to that time, had only 

 been known to me from dried skins and 

 still drier descriptions. 



The country in this vicinity is well 

 covered with pine and oak trees, inter- 

 sected in all directions by numerous 

 small creeks and ponds. It is in the 

 pine groves only, however, that the 

 Nuthatches are found, and here their 

 harsh cries are heard continually, for 

 the birds never seem to remain quiet 

 for any length of time and succeed in 

 making so much noise that one believe 

 them to be much more numerous than 

 they really are. There notes differ 

 greatly from those of either the White 

 or Red-breasted species and it was this 

 peculiarity which first attracted my at- 

 tention. 



I soon discoA'ered that to take any 

 number of their nests, I should have to 

 do a great deal of hard walking, as each 

 pair of birds seemed to monopolize the 

 whole of their particular grove for 

 nesting purposes, a habit which I have 

 also noticed in their White-breasted 

 cousins. 



Both birds seem to keep pretty much 

 confined to the immediate vicinity of 

 their home and their continued chatter 

 makes the locality of the nest, which 

 otherwise would be a difficult matter, 

 coraparitively easy. 



The site chosen consisted invariably 

 of a hole in a dead and rotten pine 

 stump at a height varying from 6 to 12 

 feet from the ground, although I sup- 

 pose they sometimes select much high- 

 er situations, as some of the stumps had 

 likely looking excavations as high up as 

 40 feet. 



The "woods Avere full" of these dead 

 stumps and most of the stumps were 

 full of holes made by the Downy Wood- 

 peckers which were breeding all around 

 and I think that most of the holes occu- 

 pied by the Nuthatches were the de- 

 serted nests of this bird, although I 

 cannot be positive on this point as all 

 the nests were found completed and 

 contained either eggs or young. 



The nests themselves were flimsy 

 affairs, the bottoms of the holes being- 

 simply covered to a depth of perhaps^ 

 an inch with short broken bits- 

 of a certain, peculiar kind of 

 flat grass. Of this stuff the^ 



birds seemed particularly fond, for it 

 was found in all the nests, mixed with 

 a few shreds of pine bark, the ^vhole so 

 loosdy put together that it could not be 

 removed entire, and thus presenting a 

 singular contrast to a couple of the 

 closely felted nests of the Caroling (?) 

 Chickadee which were found, one with 

 young just hatched, the other Avith 5 

 eggs too far advanced to save. 



The breeding date seems to vary 

 somewhat, for on the 7th day of May, I 

 found a nest Avith youug, partly fledged, 

 a set of 5 incubated eggs and another 

 set perfectly fresh but probably most of 

 the nests would hold fresh eggs about 

 the last of AiDril. 



All the nests Avere in the vicinity of 

 Avater (although more Avere actually 

 surrounded by it) and I did not even 

 see a bird in the higher and dryer pine 

 lands. All the sets consisted of 5 eggs. 



Of the eggs in general no detailed 

 description is necessary, but I Avish to 

 speak more particularly of the set of 5 

 incubated eggs referred to above, as 

 they ar quite unique. Four of the eggs 

 are quite similar, white ground color, 

 dusted all over Avith very minute dots 

 of light purplish pink. The fifth egg is 



