less a pair
chirping in the woods on the other side of the valley were the same
couple, trying to rear a family in a safer place.

What a persistent sitter the female blackcap is! One day I discovered
a nest in a fence post by the wayside. Pressing the bark aside, I
could plainly see the little owner snuggling close to the bottom of the
cup. I thrust my finger through the aperture and gently stroked her
head and back. Still she hugged the nest, pressing her head close to
the grassy bottom, as if she thought she would be safe if her head were
hidden. Thinking she must have little ones, or she would not cling so
tenaciously to the nest, I pushed my finger under her and partly raised
her from her seat. Even this rude treatment she bore for a few
moments--but it was going too far even for her courageous little heart;
she lifted her head, glanced wildly at me for an intense moment, then
sprang from the cavity with a piercing cry.

Imagine my surprise to find the nest entirely empty, not even an egg
having yet been deposited. The brave little lady had doubtless just
entered the nest to lay her first egg, and was not going to be driven
off without knowing the reason why. The tomtit is game every time.

The entrance to most of the chickadee's nests is lateral, but I found
one nest whose doorway was in the top of a fence post, so that the
owners had to go down into it vertically. The hole was quite deep, and
the birds would drop down into it as you have seen swifts dropping into
a chimney, but whether they went down head first or tail first I could
not learn, their movements were so quick. Another feature of this nest
was that it had no roof, for the doorway was open to the sky, so that a
cloudburst would have filled up their little nursery and drowned its
inmates.

THE NUTHATCH FAMILY*

*This chapter is reprinted from that excellent bird magazine called
"American Ornithology," published by Charles K. Reed, Worcester, Mass.,
and edited by his son, Chester A. Reed. The author is under obligation
to these gentlemen for their courtesy in permitting him to reprint the
article.

BIRDS OF THE INVERTED POSITION

There are a number of climbers in the bird realm, but none are quite so
expert as the nuthatch, which may be regarded as a past-master in the
art of clambering. The woodpeckers amble up the boles and branches of
trees, and when they wish to descend, as they do occasionally for a
short distance, they