500 Birds of Colorado 
old Woodpecker’s hole is sometimes taken up; Gale 
believed that the same hole is often utilized year after 
year. The nest proper is placed at the bottom of the 
excavation, which is about six or eight inches deep. 
It is made up of a felted mass of fur and feathers. The 
eggs, usually five in number, are white, spotted chiefly 
at the larger end with brown. This bird nests early ; 
Gale gives May 10th to 30th for freshly-laid eggs, while 
the nest described by Richards (08) already seemed to 
contain young birds as early as May 15th, but this, of 
course, was at an exceptionally low elevation. 
Red-breasted Nuthatch. Stita canadensis. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 728—Colorado Records—Henshaw 75, p. 174; 
Drew 85, p. 15; Lowe 94, p. 270 ; Cooke $7, pp. 122, 222 ; Henderson 
03, p. 108; 09, p. 241. 
Description.—Male—Whole of the crown and a broad stripe from 
the lores through the eye to the side of the neck black, with a faint 
gloss ; a white superciliary line extending above the lores ; rest of the 
upper-surface, including the two middle tail-feathers, blueish-grey ; 
the wing quills ashy ; the outer tail-feathers black, tipped with grey, 
the three outermost with a subterminal band of white ; throat and sides 
of the neck below the black band white, rest of the under-parts buffy, 
varying somewhat in intensity ; iris brown, bill black, paler at the base 
of the lower mandible, legs horny. Length 4-10; wing 2-70; tail 1-50; 
culmen -52; tarsus -60. 
The female has the black of the head less glossy and more slaty ; 
young birds are very similar to the adults. 
Distribution.— From southern Alaska and Labrador, south to the 
northern tier of states and further south along the Rockies and 
Alleghanies to California, Colorado and N. Carolina; further south 
to the Gulf states, Arizona and New Mexico in winter. 
In Colorado the Red-breasted Nuthatch is by no means common, 
as can be seen by the scanty notices. It is a resident throughout the 
year in the mountains, breeding from 8,000 to 10,000 feet so far as 
records show ; in the plains it has been taken by Aiken at Resolis, in 
Elbert co., May 26th, and at Limon, Lincoln co., May 19th, when it was 
probably migrating north. 
The other records are as follows: Boulder co., breeding (Gale), 
foothills in El Paso co., about 7,000 feet, November (Colo. Coll. Mus.) 
