82 



JOHN N. CLARK. 



had taken possession and built a nest of finely pulverized bark in it. 

 At a subsequent visit I found a pair of Nuthaches pulling out the frag- 

 ments of the squirrel's nest by piecemeal — they would go in one at a 

 time, seize a mouthful of the fragments änd run out on the side of the 

 tree and stuff it into the nearest crevice of the bark. And when I after- 

 wards noticed it the tree trunk in the vicinity of the nest was fringed 

 with these fragments wedged into every crevice of the bark that would 

 hold a tuft of it, the birds ceased their occupation as soon as they ob- 

 served my approach and stood perfeetly quiet and motionless, they were 

 near together with their heads towards the ground, their beaks pointed 

 at right angles with their bodies, they presented an exceedlingly odd 

 figure. 



^n„. 



Removing the sqairrel's nest was quite a job for the birds and not tili 

 the tenthof May was their set completed the only one of nine that I have 

 found. The nest was composed of quite a large quantity of material, 

 including fine grass and bark with für of hares and cattle and a few fea- 

 thers. There seems a decided uniformity in size shape and markings in 



