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General Notes. 
Nesting Habits op the Red-bellied Nuthatch. — Having been 
observing the nesting habits of the Red-bellied Nuthatch ( Sitta canaden- 
sis ), I will give the readers of the Bulletin the results of my observations. 
June 2, I found a nest on Little Deer Isle, Penobscot Bay. It was in 
a white-birch stub some ten feet from the ground ; the entrance was one and 
one half inches wide by one and one fourth deep. The hole ran slanting for 
three inches, and then straight down for four inches more. It contained six 
eggs, which were white, with small specks of reddish-brown on the small 
end, and heavily spotted with the same on the larger end, a great deal more 
brown than the eggs of the White-bellied Nuthatch. Incubation had not 
commenced. For two inches below the centre of the hole, and for half an 
inch on either side, the birch bark was coated with fir balsam. June 20, 
I found another in Holden, Me., which the young had just left. It was 
in a poplar stub some twelve feet from the ground. Hole one and one half 
inches by one inch, slanting down four inches, and then four inches 
straight down. This hole had fir balsam one fourth of an inch thick for 
two inches below the hole, and then thinner, and running down in large 
drops for twenty-one inches below the hole. The pitch extended an inch 
on either side, and more than three inches above the hole, in all more than 
could be heaped upon a large tablespoon. It was stuck full of the red 
breast-feathers of the bird, but there were no signs of any insects having 
been fastened by it. This nest had been occupied two years. Near both 
the nests were other holes not so deep, probably used for one of the birds 
to occupy while the other is sitting, as is the case with most Woodpeckers. 
Both nests were composed of fine short grasses and roots. I notice that 
in making the hole the bird makes a circle of holes round a piece about 
as large as a ten-cent-piece, and then takes out the piece of bark entire. I 
have one nest which has near it a piece circled in this manner, but not re- 
moved. My friend, Mr. Harry Merrill of Bangor, found a nest last year 
surrounded by pitch just as in those found by me. So that it seems 
certain that in most cases they do this, though for what purpose I am 
as yet unable to determine. The pitch certainly was placed there by 
the birds, as neither birch nor poplar contains pitch, and there were no 
overhanging trees from which a drop could come. I think it would take 
the bird several days of steady work to obtain what was around the nest 
in the poplar. I think that more nests would be found if people did not 
mistake them for holes of the Downy Woodpecker, which are of the same 
size, though rounder. Audubon speaks of their being placed four feet 
from the ground ; but while this is sometimes the case, they are oftener 
ten to fifteen feet from the ground. It is easy to tell even an old nest 
from that of either a Downy Woodpecker or Black-capped Titmouse, as the 
Woodpecker lays directly upon fine chips, without any nest, and the Tit- 
mouse makes a nice nest of fur and feathers, and neither place any pitch 
round the holes, while the Nuthatch makes its nest of short fine grass 
and protects with pitch outside the hole. — Manly Hardy, Brewer , Me. 
