340 THE BIRDS 
[729]. Sitta pusilla (Latham). Brown-headed 
Nuthatch. 
Raner.—Southeastern United States. Breeds in 
Austroriparian zone from southern Missouri, and southern 
Delaware south to eastern Texas and southern Florida; 
casual in southern Michigan, Ohio, New York, and the 
Bahamas. 
Along the borders of our salt water one seldom misses 
seeing this noisy little fellow bobbing up and down a 
tree trunk, or flitting from tree to tree examining the pine 
cones in search of food. Without doubt he is the first to 
tell us that spring is here by informing us, with his usual 
knocking on a dead pine stub, that he is hunting a likely 
nesting place. While the Bald Eagle may breed earlier 
in the season, it is generally nearer the New Year 
holidays, than springtime. Early in March, having 
remained during the winter with us, he is digging away 
at a rotten stub, about three or four feet from the ground, 
the cavity being made from three to ten inches deep. 
Both birds I have found oceupying this cavity at night, 
sometimes two weeks before eggs are deposited. A pair 
having established themselves on the water front of my 
farm for the last four years, broke the record for early 
dates the season of 1910; eggs deposited March 15th. 
This same pair completed their second set (having raised 
six the first time), April 15th: four eggs, slightly addled. 
These were taken, and the birds drilled another hole in 
the same stub six inches to the south side of the former, 
where five eggs were laid by April 27th. These they 
also reared. .\ few pine seed leaves on the bottom of the 
cavity is the only pretense of a nest. Six eggs are a full 
