Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/403

Rh that we can easily imagine some guilty sojourner in our native wilds, who hears it for the first time, starting from his slumbers, thinking that the Philistines were upon him.

In Williamson's "History of Maine" is given a list of our native birds, or what purport to be so, and there a very strange mistake is made in his description of the kingfisher. He says, "It is heavy as a plover, has a long bill, its head is crested with red, its back is of a blue color." He also says that this bird is plentiful, but it is very evident from his description that he never examined one, since the bird's entire upper parts, including the head, are ashy blue. These birds excavate in sand-banks a hole about six feet deep and three and a half inches in diameter; this hole is enlarged at the end, where, as Audubon, Nuttall, Samuels, and other authors agree in saying, a nest, is built, composed of grasses, leaves, feathers, and perhaps a few sticks, on which the eggs are deposited. This, however, is not the case in central Maine, for I have examined a great many of their burrows, with a view to ascertaining the facts regarding the construction of their nests, and in not a single instance has there been the slightest attempt at the formation of a nest, but the eggs were laid on the bare sand, over which in some cases fish-scales were scattered. I have spoken with many persons in different parts of this State in regard to these facts, and their observations have agreed with my own. Mr. H. D. Minot, in his "Land and Game Birds of New England," says: "From the abundant evidence recently offered on the subject of the nest, and from my own limited experience, it may be gathered that it" (i. e., the burrow) "varies in length; . . . that it may be either straight or have a bend, and that it is rarely lined at the end, except with fish-bones, as is sometimes the case."

When all Nature is covered with her snowy mantle, and our feathered friends have deserted us for more congenial climes, we may still see the red-bellied nuthatch hopping about on our trees, peering into crannies in search of food, and uttering their short and ceaseless note; but, as the weather grows milder, they gradually disappear, going away to the north, where they breed. The author of "Land and Game Birds of New England" notes that a nest was found in Roxbury, in 1886, but the instances recorded of its nest and eggs being found in New England are not common, and for this reason I trust the description of a nest and eggs which I was so fortunate as to find may be of interest. On the 23d day of May, 1877, while passing through the woods on a collecting tour, I chanced to place my hand on an old and very much decayed hemlock-stub, but no sooner had I touched it than a red-bellied nuthatch popped out of a hole about six feet from the ground, and, feeling sure of a prize, I proceeded to inspect her snug quarters. The nest was placed in a cavity in the stub, which extended downward about six inches below the entrance: at the bottom of this hole was the nest proper, which was composed entirely of soft bark;