LAND BIRDS. 691 
Reef Light, Lake Huron, August 19, 1889, August 28, 1895, September 16, 
1888 and September 29, 1889. 
_During the southward migration, in September and October, this little 
bird is often abundant among red cedars and the various pines and spruces, 
from which it gathers the seeds in large numbers and stores them beneath 
scales of bark, in crevices in tree trunks, and, as the writer has repeatedly 
noticed, in the punctures made by the Sapsucker in various species of 
trees. In several cases we have known one of these Nuthatches to spend 
apparently his entire time for several days in succession in collecting seeds 
from the cones of a pine tree and storing them in various hiding places in 
the vicinity. During the winter one or more can usually be found on the 
College campus visiting the bones and other food supplies put out for the 
purpose of attracting birds. 
Apparently much remains to be learned of the nesting habits of the 
Red-breasted Nuthatch. It is reported as breeding commonly in all 
the northern sections of the state wherever pine or other evergreens are 
abundant, but very few observers have actually seen, or at least recorded, 
the nest. It does not seem to restrict itself so closely as does the White- 
breast to the natural cavities of trees, but often, perhaps most often, makes 
use of a deserted woodpecker’s hole, in which it builds a nest of soft 
materials, much like that of the White-bellied Nuthatch, laying from 
four to six or more eggs which are creamy white, speckled sparsely with 
reddish brown, and average .59 by .46 inches. 
Dr. W. H. Dunham reports finding a nest in Kalkaska county on May 
17, 1899, placed in a hole in a maple stub, about thirty feet up and con- 
taining four fresh eggs. He says that the opening to the nest was smeared 
with pitch, especially on the lower side, and this appears to be a very 
general habit of the species, and so far as we know is unique, no other 
bird using pitch about its nest. No explanation of the presence of the 
pitch is offered and the use, if it has one, is quite problematical. Since 
the bird gets a very large part of its food from resinous trees, and especially 
from cones, its feet and beak might often be smeared with pitch, yet this 
certainly would not account for its presence in such large quantities about 
the nesting hole. Mr. Chas. E. Engles records the finding of a nest of 
this species at Templeton, Mass., June 10, 1894, which contained three 
fresh eggs of the Nuthatch and two young birds, which in all probability 
were White-bellied Swallows. No good explanation for this mingling 
of families is given, but it is at least possible that the Nuthatch had ousted 
the Swallow, added some eggs of her own and incidentally hatched some 
of the Swallow’s eggs. The date is unusually late, for this species is supposed 
to nest quite early in the spring. Nests found June 2, on an island in 
Penobscot Bay, Me., and another June 20, at Holden, Me., contained 
eggs, and the openings to both nests were liberally coated with pitch. One 
of these was in a white birch stub, and the other in a poplar stub some twelve 
feet from the ground. The hole in the latter case had “fir balsam one- 
fourth of an inch thick for two inches below the hole, and then thinner, 
and running down in long drops for twenty-one inches below the hole. 
The pitch extended one inch on either side and more than three inches 
above the hole, in all more than could be heaped upon a large tablespoon.” 
The food of this bird is presumably much like that of the White-bellied 
Nuthatch, yet it seems to be much more fond of the seeds of cones, and 
possibly does not consume as many insects. It is said to visit the ground 
much less frequently, but so far as our own observation goes there is little 
