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 Bird- Lore

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In making the excavation, she would carry off some of the chips and apparently hide them as she would a nut, others she would carry away and drop, and still others (generally the smaller ones) she would drop from the entrance to the hole.

During the whole nesting time the male was particularly tame, and would come [0 us whenever we were in the vicinity of the nest, follow us. alight on our hands and eat while we were walking. One day, after feeding from our hands for a short time, he ﬂew to a small pool only a few feet away and took a bath: then, without waiting to dry his feathers, returned to ﬁnish his meal.

We were unable to take time to watch the nest carefully enough to obtain exact data, but on May 4. we saw both birds carrying food to the nest, and on May [2 saw the young peeping out of the hole. A few days after this we saw the whole family at the old feeding-ground, and they remained in our woods all summer, being about the only Red-breasted Nuthatches observed during that season.

The Return of the Nuthatch

BY E. M. MEAD

Wm. photoxranhs llom natun- by B. s Eowdish

IADERS of IIIRDrLORE may remember the photograph from nature R of the White-breasted Nuthatch published in this magazine for December, 1901, which shows the bird on my hand with a nut she had just taken. In April of that year she disappeared, presumably for nesting, from Central Park, New York city, where I had tamed and fed hert The following winter I watched closely and inquired frequently of the many bird-lovers in the park if White-breasted Nuthatches had been seen, but none were reported, so I sorrowfully concluded that some misfortune had hefallen my bird friendt On my return to the park in October, 1902, about a mile north of the place where I fed and tamed the Nuthatch in 1900, I saw at various times two or three White-breasted Nuthatches, and others were reported. Then I placed. each day, bits of nut and suet in the crevices of the bark of trees, hoping my bird would be attracted, if, returning, she should chance to pass that way My patience has been well rewarded, for the bird has apparently returned, but without her mate, and still enjoys as much—even more, perhaps—alighting on my hand and helping herself to the nuts she ﬁnds there. So fearless is she that she will take food from my lips, shoulder or lap. Even an open umbrella over my head has no

(errors for her. Although she manifested some annoyance at the ap-