carried down deep by this time, for four teen days have 
Nuthat ches 
begin work 
on nest 
elapsed since I first noticed the birds at work there and 
the hole had then been carried in and down so far that the 
bird was out of sight when at vtrork. Both birds visit and 
eat of the suet in the lilac bush, at frequent intervals 
through the day. They are very silent and I rarely hear 
either of them call. They stopped drumming before I found 
the nest. 
White-bellied Nuthatches have frequented the elms 
and orchard on the Barrett farm through the past three 
breeding seasons but I have never succeeded in finding a 
nest,. This spring I saw the pair together on several 
occasions early in April, but after the middle of the 
appeared 
month the male usually appreaehed alone, spending most 
of the day in the big elms about the house. Indeed I did not 
once see the female between April 13 and May 5. On the 
latter day, both birds were feeding together in the 
elms. They were there again this morning when I noticed 
that the female showed much interest in the numerous 
holes in the old trees, entering several of them. The 
male twice approached and fed her just after she had 
emerged from a hole which I thought might contain the 
nest. About 2 P. M., however, I found the female hard 
at work removing an old Squirrel’s nest from a hole in 
an oak in the grove behind the barn. She labored 
ceaselessly, bringing out the firm, shredded o circle 
that the ®e<£ Sqirrels use for their nests, in tufta almost 
