138 DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS OF CANADA NUTHATCH 



meuts might be multiplied; and my limited experience with 

 the bird, which I have only seen during the colder part of the 

 year, and only about Washington, simply forces me to an 

 expression of opinion formed according to the balance of evi- 

 dence. I judge that the bird is on the whole a more northerly 

 species than the Garolina Kuthatch ; that, unlike the other 

 i^uthatches, the Titmice and the Creeper, all of which 

 are imijerfectly migratory, if not stationary, it migrates to a 

 considerable extent in spring and fall. There appears, further- 

 more, to be an uncertain intermediate tract, in northerly por- 

 tions of the United States, where some individuals at least are 

 resident, and north of which the bird is only seen in summer, 

 while further south it will only be found in winter, except at 

 high elevations among the mountains of the West, where alti- 

 tude answers for latitude. Its northern limit of distribution 

 has been stated to be about latitude 60° N. In the West, it 

 extends southward to the Mexican border, a specimen having 

 been obtained at Fort Yuma by Lieut. J. 0. Ives. I have 

 observed no Mexican references, nor am I aware that the bird 

 has ever been found south of the United States. 



The rarity of the Canada iN'uthatch in most of the Col- 

 orado Basin may be inferred from the infrequency of the 

 original quotations referring to this section of the country — 

 most writers, in fact, refer to the Yuma example just men- 

 tioned. I never saw it myself in any portion of New Mexico 

 or Arizona, nor does Mr. Henshaw appear to have met with it 

 in either of these Territories or in Utah. He gives us, how- 

 ever, an interesting record of its breeding in the pine woods 

 about Fort Garland, Colorado, where he states it was by no 

 means rare. The nest was found in a pine stump a few feet 

 from the ground, excavated in the decayed wood to the depth 

 of five inches, and lined with bits of bark; the eggs were five 

 in number, in an advanced state of incubation. A nest which 

 Audubon found in Maine as early as April 19, before the ice 

 was all gone, was dug to a depth of about fourteen inches ; it 

 contained four eggs. The eggs I have examined in the Smith- 

 sonian collection are like those of the Carolina Nuthatch, but 

 noticeably smaller, measuring about 0.60x0.48; they are 

 white, sprinkled with reddish dots, sometimes pretty evenly 

 distributed over the whole surface, sometimes chiefly wreathed 

 about the larger end, or there confluent. The same general 

 I'-haracters obtain in the eggs of other Nuthatches. 



