822 Rural School Leaflet 



in the bark, and then strike it with great force with its beak, apparently 

 forgetting that it is not encased in a shell. 



THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF THE WHITE-BREASTED 



NUTHATCH 



H. D. Reed 



The white-breasted nuthatch is one of our most industrious gleaners 

 of insects and their eggs and young from the trunks and branches of 

 trees. An individual nuthatch hustling about his work, as frequently 

 upside down as the reverse, is the very embodiment of industry and keen 

 scrutiny. No crack nor cranny is too insignificant to escape inspection. 

 The nuthatch does not dig holes in the trees in search of its food as do 

 the woodpeckers, but rather gets it from the crevices in the rough bark. 

 In such places millions of insects deposit their eggs for safe keeping during 

 the winter months. The bill of the nuthatch is adapted through its shape 

 to slip under the pieces of bark and to the very depths where eggs and, 

 later, larvse (" worms ") are to be found. It is impossible to estimate 

 the millions of injurious insects destroyed by a single nuthatch during a 

 year. 



Among the injurious insects devoured by the nuthatch are: beetles, 

 which bore in the bark or wood; scale insects, among which is the oyster- 

 shell bark louse, injurious to apples and pears; cankerworms; and the cater- 

 pillars of the gypsy m.oth. A single stomach of the nuthatch in one 

 instance proved to contain one thousand six hundred and twenty-nine 

 eggs of the fall cankerworm. Granting that half of these eggs would 

 produce females, which in turn would lay a large number of eggs, some 

 idea can be gained of one day's service of this bird to man. There are 

 other insects which would probably become pests were it not that they 

 are held in check by the nuthatch. 



During the winter months the nuthatch feeds to a large extent on the 

 seeds of weeds, thus adding to its right to life and protection. There is 

 no doubt that this bird is to be considered the friend and colaborer of the 

 forester, the fruit grower, and the farmer, and in return for its very 

 efficient service it deserves encouragement and protection. 



" You call them thieves and pillagers; but know. 



They are the winged wardens of your farms. 

 Who from the cornfields drive the insidious foe. 



And from your harvests keep a hundred harms; 

 Even the blackest of them all, the ctow, 



Renders good service as your man-at-arms, 

 Crushing the beetle in his coal-of-mail. 



And crying havoc on the slug and snail." 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 



