The Pygmy Nuthatches 
The parents are as proud as peacocks, and well they may be, of their 
six or eight oval treasures, crystal white, with rufous frecklings, lavish 
or scant. When the babies are hatched, the mother goes in and out 
fearlessly under your very nose; and you feel such an interest in the 
little family that you pluck instinctively—but alas! with what futility— 
at the fastenings of your purse. 
Those of our readers who are not interested in collecting, or who 
profess disdain for its quasi cruelties, are admonished to pause here; 
for we cannot forbear to recite the circumstances attending the taking 
of two sets of eggs now in the Museum of Comparative Oology: No. 
56 6-13, White-naped Nuthatch, May 25, 1913, San Jacinto Mountains; 
elevation 4000 feet; dis¬ 
covered by tracing male 
bird to nesting hole 45 feet 
up in lone yellow pine, 
where he made frequent 
trips to feed his mate. 
The nesting cavity, ap¬ 
proached by an entrance 
hole 1 inches in di¬ 
ameter, had evidently been 
carved out by the birds; 
but it was very irregular 
in shape, the sides being 
deeply fluted by intrusive 
pillars of harder wood. 
The interstices and pockets 
so fashioned had been care¬ 
fully calked with fur and 
feathers of the same 
general character as that of 
the material used in the 
remainder of the nest. On 
the face of this lateral 
padding, had been ar¬ 
ranged an elaborate 
system of draperies, con¬ 
sisting chiefly of the wing 
quills of the California 
Woodpecker (Balanospliyra 
formicivorus bairdi). The 
Taken in the San Jacinto Mountains 
Photo by the Author 
No. 56/6-13, IN SITU 
649 
