18 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 94: 



worry the parent in the least. However, if the egg's were 

 moved more than about thirty inches from their rightful loca- 

 tion, there was apt to be trouble before the bird realized that 

 her eggs had moved away, and it would only settle after wan- 

 dering about rather aimlessly when all the birds in the imme- 

 diate vicinity had taken their places, and there were no other 

 nests empty. Curious to know how many eggs a bird would 

 cover, a nest was selected containing one egg, and the com- 

 plement increased during the bird's absence, until in less than 

 two hours the bird was sitting — not exactly comfortably, but 

 sitting — upon seven eggs, evidently with the best of inten- 

 tions. After she had become thoroughly used to this large 

 complement, six of the eggs were removed at once : the dis- 

 appearance of so large a part of her charge was taken, ap- 

 parently, as a matter of course, for, with barely a second's 

 inspection, she settled upon the nest, and began preening her 

 feathers. Hence the statement that the bird returns to the 

 spot rather than to the nest. 



Zoological Laboratory, University of Wisconsin, ■ 



Madison, Wisconsin. 



A STUDY OF A WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH.^ 



BY W^INSOR M. TYLER, M.D. 



In regions where the White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta car- 

 olinensis carolinensis) is a common resident bird, such as the 

 country about Boston, Mass., I think it must often have been 

 noticed how closely a bird of this species, or a pair of birds, 

 remains in one restricted locality for weeks at a time. This 

 habit is most noticeable in winter. Wherever the birds elect 

 to settle for the cold season, they can generally be found 

 within a few hundred yards of their chosen station. The chief 

 requisites for their winter quarters are a food supply, cran- 

 nies of rough bark in which to store food, or into which to 

 wedge such food as has to be broken before being eaten, and 



' Read on Jan. 17, 1916, at a meeting of the Nuttall Ornitholog- 

 ical Club. 



