Plate LXVIII. 



Fig. 6. SITU GAROLINENSIS-White-bellied Nuthatch. 



The White-bellied Nuthatch is a common resident, more plentiful in winter than in summer. It 

 builds the last of April or the first of May, and usually rears but one brood. 



LOCALITY: 



The nest is generally in woods, in the dead trunk or branch of a tall tree; both uplands and low- 

 lands are frequented. Sometimes it builds in a town, selecting an orchard or shade tree for its home. 

 At Geneva, K Y., a pair built several years in a large oak tree within a few feet of a dwelling. At 

 Grambier, it has been known "to build in a crevice in the Avail of a stone building." 



POSITION : 



The nest is placed in a hole, excavated by the birds, as a rule, from twenty to forty feet from the 

 ground, and rests upon the bottom of the cavity. A natural cavity is said to be occasionally selected for 

 the site. Commonly the nest is in a perpendicular trunk or limb. 



MATERIALS : 



Audubon found the eggs of this species resting on the bare floor of the excavation ; this is certainly 

 exceptional. All later observers agree that the cavity is lined with hair, feathers, down, fur, grasses, and 

 the like, thrown carelessly together and pressed down by the weight of the birds, so as to form a warm, 

 soft resting place for the eggs and young. I have at hand no measurements of the door and interior of 

 the excavation, but as I remember them they are about the same in dimensions as in the nest of the 

 Downy Woodpecker. 



EGGS: 



The complement of eggs varies according to different writers from four to nine. Two sets before me 

 contain five and six each. The ground-color of the shell is white when blown, marked with blotches, 

 spots, and speckles of brown-madder, usually of light tint. The marks beneath the surface are grayish 

 in appearance. One egg from the two sets mentioned is marked at its base with confluent blotches, 

 spots, and speckles; the remainder of the shell is quite thickly spotted and speckled, but the marks are 

 seldom confluent. Another egg is boldly blotched at its base with a dark shade of color, but the blotches 

 seldom coalesce ; the balance of the shell is blotched and spotted more sparingly, but in the same clear- 

 cut, decided way. Another specimen is uniformly speckled from point to base with the minutest dots 

 of color, so that eighteen inches away it appears like a pink egg with here and there a spot. The first 

 egg described is the most ordinary type, but each of the three is common. Of eleven eggs in my 

 possession, the greatest long-diameter is .73, the least long-diameter is .70. The greatest short-diameter 



299 



