Rocky-Mountain Nuthatch 499 



Description. — Male — Crown and nape shiny black ; general colour 

 above, including the central tail-feathers, greyish-blue ; greater coverts 

 tipped with white ; on the longest tertial the central black area of the 

 feather is acutely pointed, not rounded ; tail-feathers, except the central 

 pair, black, with increasing amounts of white towards the outer ones ; 

 below, including the sides of the head and superciliary region, white ; 

 flanks slightly washed with grey ; lower abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts blotched with chestnut ; iris brown, bill blackish, paler on the 

 culmen at the base and on the lower mandible, legs dusky. Length 

 5-30 ; wing 3-50 ; tail 1-80 ; culmen -75 ; tarsus -68. 



The female has the crown more greyish, though still glossy, and 

 the yoimg birds are very similar to the adults. 



Distribution.— Western North America from British Columbia and 

 Manitoba, south along the eastern border of the great plains to western 

 Texas and northern Mexico, west to the eastern slopes of the Cascades 

 and Sierra Nevada. Generally a resident. 



In Colorado the Rocky-Mountain Nuthatch is a common resident 

 throughout the year, being found chiefly along the foothills and in 

 the pinon and cedar zone in winter, and at higher elevations, nearly 

 up to timber line, in summer, but it has been found breeding as low as 

 5,300 feet at Littleton near Denver (Richards 08). 



Other breeding records are : Estes Park (McGregor), Gold Hill, 

 Boulder co., about 9,S00 feet (Gale), above Idaho Springs, from 8,000 

 feet to timber line (Trippe), Twin Lakes (Scott), West Monument 

 Creek, El Paso co. (Allen & Brewster), La Plata co., up to 11,000 feet 

 (Morrison). 



Habits. — This Nuthatch is a tree-trunk bird, resembhng 

 the Creeper ; its usual position is clinging Uke a Wood- 

 pecker to the trunk of some rough-barked tree or running 

 up and down looking for insects which constitute the 

 bulk of its food. Its long hind toes and hooked claws 

 enable it to chug to the undersides of horizontal branches 

 and to creep down as well as up the vertical trunks. 

 They have an unmistakable nasal ringing call " Chank, 

 chank," by which their whereabouts can be easily 

 detected. 



The Rocky -Mountain Nuthatch nests in holes, gener- 

 ally in fir trees, sometimes in cotton-woods. These 

 are more usually excavated by the bird itself, but an 



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