RED-BELLIED NUTHATCH. 583 



ing round, he again ascends to his usual station, trumpet- 

 ing his notes as before. He seldom wholly quits the for- 

 est, but when baffled by the slippery sleet which denies 

 him a foot-hold, he is sometimes driven to the necessity 

 of approaching the barn-yard and stables, or the pre- 

 cincts of the dwelling, where occasionally mixing among 

 the common fowls, entering the barn, or examining its 

 beams and rafters, he seems to leave no means untried 

 to secure a scanty subsistence. 



Length 5^^ inches, alar extent 11. Bill black. Legs dusky flesh- 

 color. 



RED-BELLIED NUTHATCH. 



(Sitta canadensis, L. Wilson, Am, Orn. i. p. 40. pi. 2. fig. 4.) 



Sp. Charact. — Lead-color; head and neck above, and line through 

 the eye, black; beneath rust-color; lateral tail-feathers black 

 and white. — Young plumbeous on the head. 



The habits of this smaller species are almost similar 

 to the preceding ; they have, however, a predilection 

 for pine forests, feeding much on the oily seeds of 

 these evergreens. In these barren solitudes they are 

 almost certain to be found in busy employment, asso- 

 ciating in pairs, with the Chicadees and smaller Wood- 

 peckers, the whole forming a hungry, active, and noisy 

 group, skipping from tree to tree with petulant chat- 

 ter, probing and rattling the dead or leafless branches, 

 prying in every posture for their scanty food ; and, like 

 a horde of foraging Tartars, they then proceed through 

 the forest, and leisurely overrun the whole of the conti- 

 nent to the very confines of the tropics, retiring north 

 iirthe same manner with the advance of the spring. 



The notes of this species of Nuthatch are sharper than 

 those of the preceding. Its motions are also quicker. In 

 winter, they migrate to the Southern States, where they 



