Sitta canadensis. 
Lake Umbagog, Maine. Male feeding female. 
1S96. Returning from a .walk to Osgood's camping ground I found 
May.24. a Red-bellied Nuthatch's nest in a paper birch stub on the 
edge of the little opening at the west end of the point. The 
female was sitting but she came out when I rapped at her door. 
I spent a good part of the remainder of the day watching this 
nest with great interest and some profit. Quite regularly at 
intervals varying from 10 to 15 minutes the male came to it 
with a bill full of insects - large, gawzy-winged Diptera they 
looked like t He always alighted at exactly the same spot a 
little below and to the right of the hole and invariably, just 
after getting his foothold, called whe e -whee-whee (a note new 
to me) in low but incisive tones. Instantly the bill of the 
female would appear at the opening (I could see nothing but 
her bill ) and after thrusting the food into it the male would 
fly off in silence for a fresh supply. 
