376 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



est woodlands, preferring those composed largely or wholly of white pines, pitch 

 pines or hemlocks. They also visit cultivated grounds in the suburbs of our 

 city, where they feed on the seeds of the Norway spruce, of which they seem to 

 be particularly fond, and where I have known them to eat suet with evident 

 relish. It is unusual to find more than two or three birds in any one place, but 

 my notes mention instances of as many as forty or fifty having been seen 

 together or in close proximity. Like the White-breasted Nuthatch, the present 

 species associates freely with Creepers, Kinglets, Chickadees and Downy Wood- 

 peckers, especially in autumn. 



Although eastern Massachusetts evidently lies outside the normal summer 

 range of the Red-breasted Nuthatch, the bird has been known to breed near 

 Boston. On May 26, 1900, a nest containing three well-grown young and the 

 same number of apparently fresh eggs was found in a "dead white birch" ^ near 

 the banks of Charles River in Needham by Dr. Arthur L. Reagh ; four days 

 later (on May 30) Miss Mary Abby White discovered a nest with young in a 

 hole (which I afterwards examined) in a gray birch at the entrance to Sleepy 

 Hollow Cemetery at Concord. There is also a record ^ by Mr. J. A. Farley of 

 the "probable breeding" of this Nuthatch in Medford where, " in June, 1899," 

 Mr. F. H. Mosher saw a bird "busily engaged in catching and carrying away 

 larvae, presumably to its young." I mention these instances chiefly because of 

 the indirect but nevertheless important bearing which they have on the follow- 

 ing evidence: On May 9, 1889, Mr. Walter Faxon saw a male Canada Nut- 

 hatch near Turkey Hill in Arlington, going in and out of a small hole in the 

 dead branch of a tupelo, about twenty feet above the ground. Mr. Faxon was 

 unable to visit the place again until more than a month later, when on June 23 

 he found what he took to be the same bird among some pines near the tupelo 

 tree. He believes that the hole which it entered on the first occasion contained 

 its nest, but unfortunately the evidence on this point is not conclusive. A few 

 years previous to this Mr. C. F. Batchelder had found in autumn or winter, 

 near Arlington Heights, a pitch pine stub in which was a nest that had appar- 

 ently been made or at least occupied by one of these Nuthatches, for the 

 entrance hole was too small to have admitted any other bird of similar breeding 

 habits excepting a Chickadee and its edges were smeared with pitch. The habit 

 of thus protecting the entrance to its nest is believed to be peculiar to the Red- 

 breasted Nuthatch, but in the present instance there is, of course, no proof that 

 the bird did more than prepare a place for the reception of its eggs. 



'A. L. Reagh, in litt., July 2, 1901. 

 2 J. A. Farley, Auk, XVIII, 1901, 198. 



