194 VoL. X AN UNUSUAL NESTING LOCALITY FOR THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NUTHATCH By GEORGE RICHARDS %VIl*H TWO PHOTOS Bit' THE AUTHOR A LTHO but an amateur, I have like most other students my own idea con- cerning the habits of certain birds. Having worked among the birds a few years and found several nests of the Long-tailed Chickadee at an altitude of less than 5500 feet, I thought nothing of them except as interesting nests, like those of the other common birds. But when I became acquainted with a more experienced bird student, and told him of these nests, he greatly doubted my iden- tification, until this spring when he saw the nests and the birds and satisfied himself as to their identity. I had come to the conclusion that, as the location was but ten miles froIn the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains and streams thickly bordered with cotton- woods and willows flowed from the canyons, the breeding ,? birds from higher altitudes sometimes followed the streams a short way out on the plains and nested there. ? ? ? Therefore I was both pleased , and surprised wheu my brother ? ?,',. - returned home, May 14, 1908, '? ? ?,, with the news of having found a nest of the Rocky Mountain Nuthatch ( ' ". ? carolitte?tsl's ?telsotti). But again the practiced bird stu- dent was skeptical and imme- - diately asked "to be shown." ROCKY I?OUNTAIN NUTHATCH AT ENTRANCE TO NEST-CAVITY When my brother first found the nest he declared that he saw both birds, male and fenrole, carrying something into the hole xvhich ap- peared to be nesting material. The nest was visited the 15th, but nothing was de- termined as to whether there were eggs or not. Thinking it too early for eggs, the nest was not revisited for several days. Armed with a keyhole saw and cameras, our next trip was made May 22rid and to my joy, and the astonish- merit and dismay of the egg collectors our ears were greeted with the squeaking of hungry babes. Judging from the size of the youngsters on this date they were undoubtedly hatched when the nest was first found, and what was thought to be nesting material was in reality food for the young. There was only the female to be seen now. Where the male had gone was hard to tell. The. female was as tame as a chickadee, coming and going and feed- ing her young, with the writer standing only a foot or so distant. She worked in- cessantly, passing from nest to tree trunk, and, finding suitable food, at once re- turning. She usually brought millers, which were common at that time of the year. By actual count she visited the nest twenty-seven times in one hour,
