OF NEW ENGLAND. 65 



be moves upward and down, in spiral circles, around the body 

 and larger branches of the tree, probing behind the thin scaly 

 bark of the white oak, and shelling off considerable pieces of 

 it in his search after spiders, ants, insects and their larvae. He 

 rests and ' roosts with his head downwards ; and ai)pears to 

 possess a degree of curiosity not cominon in many birds ; fre- 

 quently descending, very silently, within a few feet of tlie 

 root of the tree where you happen to stand, stopping, head 

 downward, stretching out his neck in a horizontal position, as 

 if to reconnoitre your appearance, and after several minutes of 

 silent observation, wheeling around, he again mounts, with fresh 

 activity, piping his unisons as before. Strongly attached to 

 his native forests he seldom forsakes them ; and amidst the 

 rigors of the severest winter weather, his note is still lieard 

 in the bleak and leafless woods, and among the howling 

 branches. Sometimes the rain, freezing as it falls, encloses 

 every twig, and even the trunk of the tree, in a hard trans- 

 parent coat or shell of ice. On these occasions I have ob- 

 served his anxiety and dissatisfaction, at being with difficulty 

 able to make his way along the smooth surface ; at these times 

 generally abandoning the trees, gleaning about the stables, 

 around the house, mixing among the fowls, entering the barn, 

 and examining the beams and rafters, and every place where 

 he may pick up a subsistence. 



"The name Nuthatch has been bestowed on this family of 

 birds from their supposed practice of breaking nuts by repeated 

 hatchings, or hammerings with their bills. Soft shelled nuts, 

 such as chestnuts, chinkapins, and hazel nuts, they ma\' prob- 

 ably be able to demolish, though I have never 3'et seen them so 

 engaged ; but it must be ratlier in search of maggots that 

 sometimes breed there, than for the kernel. It is, however, said 

 that they lay up a large store of nuts for winter ; but as I have 

 never either found any of their magazines, or seen them col- 

 lecting them, I am inclined to doubt the fact. From the great 

 numbers I have opened at all seasons of the 3'ear, I have every 

 reason to believe that ants, bugs, small seeds, insects and their 

 larvae, form their chief subsistence, such matters alone being 

 6 



