THE RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 



291 



and he jniljlislies f(.)rth\vitli a broadside of seiisalional e(lit(_)rial matter 

 which 110 thoughtful reader of the woods can overlook. The full 

 war-dance song of the Red-breasted Nuthatch, executed, for instance, 

 wdien he hears tlie false notes of the Screech Owl. is something like this: 



iiyaa iiyaa nyaa nyaa nyaa 



nyd iiyii iiya iiyu iiyCi iiya nya nydnya and soon, in an incoherent 



Nyaa 

 nya nyd 



strain of wild excitement, 

 until he runs clean out of 

 breath and quits, exhausted. 

 The early notes of this orgic 

 rhapsody are interrogative and 

 penetrating; the succeeding 

 notes are a sort of trumpeting 

 challenge for the intruder to 

 show himself: failing which, 

 the irate Creeper drops into a 

 lower, non-resonant series, of 

 doubtful meaning and more 

 doubtful morals. But the bird 

 is not always angry, and the 

 nasal call sounding on migra- 

 tion has a friendlv qualitv 

 about it which brings one has- 

 tening out-of-doors to greet 

 the traveler again. Contrary 

 to an early report, the Red- 

 breast is quite at home in our 

 deeper forests. Indeed, his is 

 one of the most characteristic 

 voices of the solemn fir woods. 

 He still claims an interest 

 however, in fleciduous timber, 

 in bottom lands, and in the 

 oak trees which border the 

 prairies. In western Washing- 

 ton, it is quite impossible to 

 trace or to estimate the bird's 

 migrations, since it is present everywhere at all seasons ; but it is probably 

 much less abundant with us in winter. In eastern Washington, it is 

 confined for the most part to the region of pine timber in summer, 

 and altho it also winters here irregularl\-, the numbers in this part 

 of the State are largely augmented by migrants during May and September. 



RED-BRE.\STED XUTH.VTCH. 



