196 
N£STS AND EGGS OF 
States the time varies from the twentieth of March to about the fifth of 
the succeeding month. It is then that the sexes manifest more than the 
usual affection for each other. Their courtship is brief, and business is 
entered into without the display of any of those amusing antics which 
231-e-eminently mark the smaller oscines. The males, according to our 
ex23erience, seem to select the same partners on each recurrence of the 
breeding-time, where not debarred by various fortuitous circumstances. As 
a proof of this position, we might instance a case. In the vicinity of 
Philadelphia a |3air of birds once laid claim to a particular tree on the 
premises of a kind-hearted gentleman, who would not suffer them to be 
disturbed. The breeding-season being over, the female retained possession 
of the cavity which she had used while rearing her young, and the male 
sought shelter in the same clumj) of trees, but in a different hollow. As 
these were the only birds in that locality, and were observed to occupy 
the same spot for two successive years, there can be no reason to dispute 
the above question. By the law of analogy, we presume that others do 
likewise. 
Pairing having been solemnized, the sexes now set to work to re-fur- 
nish their domicile. In the case- of young birds some time is spent in 
looking up a suitable hollow of requisite caj^acity. When j^reference is 
shown for an orchard, the apple-tree is selected, especially if it is in close 
proximity to a farmyard. In other situations, almost any of the sj)ecies of 
oaks is made to do good service. The hole generally chosen is one which 
had been jjreviously wrought by the Golden-shafted Woodpecker at con- 
siderable pains. Where this does not exist, a decayed stump is rendered 
available. The cavity is placed at varying heights, which seem dependent 
upon the character of the neighborhood. In wooded regions nests are 
placed at elevations of forty feet and upwards, while in localities contiguous 
to human habitations, a greater height than ten feet is scarcely reached, 
and some are never placed more than five or six feet from the ground. 
The lining of the cavity consists of a few dry leaves and grasses, with an 
upper stratum of feathers. These are mostly placed in the bottom, and do 
