Corthia familiaris americana. 
Main© (Lake Umbagog), 
1876. I 
June 9.; Several pairs among the stubs at the Outlet. 
il 
1879. ' 
May 31. Nest v/ith set of six eggs behind a scale of loose 
bark on ■ the trunk of a dead fir. Height ten feet; 
female sitting; eggs incubated four or five days. Af¬ 
ter I had removed the nest-bark and all-the female re¬ 
turned, examined the spot v/here it had been, in evident 
j bev/ilderment, then alighted at the foot of the tree and 
j ascended it to the top, searching it closely. This she 
i repeated at least a dozen times in succession. The 
song of this species is not povmrful but exceedingly 
sv/eet and wild. It consists of four notes distinctly 
but rather quickly given and most resembles the song of 
Parus carolinensis . 
June 5. i! Set of six eggs incubated about six days; nest un¬ 
der a strip of bark on dead fir; height ton foot. 
I found it by follov/ing the female v/’ho flew to and from 
the tree a number of times, entering thenest and then 
again leaving it as if building. She uttered her shrill 
; creep at intervals while I was taking the eggs. The male 
I did not appear. 
14. 
Nest with one fresh egg. 
(( 
14. 
A nest containing young wliich the mother V7as feed¬ 
ing. She made frequent trips to and from the tree going 
only a fo'w yards away and alv;ays securing a billful of 
food for her brood on one of the neighboring tree-trunks. 
The young v;-ero absolutely silent.-isrheti :bajng fed. The 
mother vmtched me also in silence and v/ithout apparent 
alarm v/hilo I inspected the nest,. This nest v;as a 
stub that stood just outside that v/oods on the shore of 
the lake, and surrounded by water. It vras not over 
four feet above the surface of the v/ater. Some of the 
materials of v/hich it v/as composed hung dovm an inch or 
tv;o below the bottom of the bark-scale. I also found 
that two nests, both old ones, behind the same scale 
of bark but on opposite sides. This piece of bark, v;as 
a huge sheet adhereing to the trunk of a dead fir that 
stood in the v/ater on the extremity of a point. One 
nest was probably a last year’s one, it still contained 
an unhatched egg, bleached, and cracked. The other 
nest was evidently of older origin and probably built 
tv/o years ago. I regard both those nests as the for¬ 
mer homes of the same pair of birds that built the first 
nest found by me this season; the site of the latter 
being not over fifty yards away from this spot. 
(( 
18. 
A female at vrork upon an unfinished nest. 
Sot G-4. — Fresh—under bark scale—fir—female si4 
tingr^-found June 14 v/hon it contained one egg. The fe¬ 
male sat very closely and flov; about my head as I was 
taking the eggs, coming v/ithin a few inches. 
