BIRDS OF KANSAS. ■ 627 



anchor, making their course up and clown the trees as safe and 

 easy as a horizontal one, and wholly does away with the use of the 

 tail, so essential to the Creepers and Woodpeckers in sustaining 

 an upright position. They are active, busy bodies, creeping up 

 and down the trees, peeping and prying into every crack and 

 crevice in the bark, in their search for insect life. In the winter 

 months, when the eggs, larva and other forms fail to supply 

 their wants, they feed upon the meat of thin-shelled nuts — • 

 I say thin shelled, for their bills are not formed to easily pene- 

 trate the thick-shelled ones. They have the habit of storing 

 the nuts away for future use, hiding them in the holes and in- 

 terstices in the bark, hammering and pressing them securely in 

 place; their bills not being chisel shaped, they cannot drill holes 

 for their reception, as many "Woodpeckers do. (All the Titmouse 

 family at times eat the meat of nuts, though naturally insectivo- 

 rous. I know this from keeping them in confinement; the pe- 

 can nut is their favorite.) They occasionally visit fallen trees, 

 and I have seen them upon the ground, but their home is on the 

 upper bodies and branches of trees. 



During the breeding season the birds are very attentive lovers. 

 The male feeds his mate while she is sitting, and warbles his 

 feeble, twittering, "Twea" notes (hardly musical enough to be 

 called a song) to please her, and, when the little ones are hatched, 

 faithfully assists in caring for their wants. 



Their nests are built in decaying places in trees, the entrance 

 usually a knot hole. The rotten wood is removed to suit, and 

 lined chiefly with rabbits' fur; in some cases a few fine grass 

 leaves and downy feathers. Eggs four to nine (rarely nine, 

 usually five or six), .76x.56; they varj- greatly in size; rosy 

 white, thickly speckled and spotted with reddish brown and 

 lilac, thickest about the larger end; in form, oval. 



Sitta canadensis Lijin. 



EED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 

 PLATE XXXIV. 



Winter sojourner; rare. Begin to arrive from the north in 

 October; return in April. 



B. 279. R. 52. C. 59. G. 20, 319. U. 728. 



