The Pygmy Nuthatches 
June in the high Sierras linger late in the Southland. For instance, I 
saw a migrant Red-breast on the Farallons on the 24th of May of that 
same year (1911). 
Canadian Nuthatches nest at any height, and their lack of consider¬ 
ation in this respect accounts for much of our relative ignorance. I 
located a nest, in Seattle, in a nearly limbless live hr tree, at a height of 
120 feet. Obligations to a growing family forbade attention to details. 
On the other hand, a nest taken near Tacoma on the 8th of June, 1906, was 
found at a height of only seven feet, in a small hr stump. It would be 
unsafe to suggest that the cost of living in these rival towns had anything 
to do with the birds’ choices: I only know that Tacoma nests adorn 
many collections. The wood of the last-named nesting stub was very 
rotten, and the eggs rested only four inches below the entrance. The 
nest-lining, in this instance, was a heavy mat an inch in thickness, and 
was composed of vegetable matter—wood hber, soft grasses, etc.—with¬ 
out hair of any sort, as would surely have been the case with that of a 
Chestnut-backed Chickadee, for which it was at first taken. 
The Nuthatches appear to leave their eggs during the warmer hours 
of the day, and one must await the return of the truant owners if he would 
be sure of identification. One mark, but not infallible, is the presence of 
pitch, smeared all around, and especially below, the nesting hole. The 
use of this is not quite certain, but Mr. Bowles’s hazard is a good one; 
viz., that it serves to ward off the ants, which are often a pest to hole¬ 
nesting birds. These ants not only annoy the sitting bird, who is pre¬ 
sumably able to defend herself, but they sometimes destroy unguarded 
eggs, or young birds. 
No. 130 
Pygmy Nuthatch 
A. O. U. No. 730. Sitta pygmaea pygmsea Vigors. 
Synonym.— California Nuthatch (early name). 
Description. — Adults: Crown, nape, and sides of head to below eye, deep 
grayish olive; a buffy white spot on hind-neck (nearly concealed in fresh plumage); 
lores and region behind eye (bounding the olive) blackish; remaining upperparts 
grayish blue (dark green-blue-gray to clear Payne’s gray), browning (brownish slate) 
on flight-feathers, etc., becoming black on rectrices (except central pair); longer pri¬ 
maries usually with some edging of white; central pair of tail-feathers with elongated 
basal white spot; two outer pairs crossed obliquely with white, and the three outer 
tipped with slate; underparts sordid white, smoky brown, or even pale ferruginous, 
clearest (nearly white) on chin and cheeks; sides, flanks, and crissum washed with 
color of back. Bill plumbeous, lightening below; feet plumbeous; iris black. Young: 
Like adults, but crown and hind-neck nearly color of back; sides and flanks washed 
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