HABITS OF THE SLENDER-BILLP:D NUTHATCH 135 



other. Sometimes I fancied the Slender-billed to be fonder of 

 pine woods ; but then I saw it chiefly in a country where the 

 Conifene were the only extensive forests, and I knew that the 

 common White-bellied inhabited pines just as frequently, con- 

 sidering the relative numbers of these and deciduous trees in 

 most portions of the eastern United States. Mr. T. M. Trippe 

 has spoken, in my " Birds of the Northwest", of what he con- 

 siders a decided difference in the notes of the two birds : — " The 

 common piping note is nearly the same, though in a different 

 key ; but the loud spring call is very different. It is far coarser, 

 louder, and more rapid in amleata — so loud and rattling, in 

 fact, that I have mistaken it for the call of the Red-shafted 

 Flicker — while there is none of the soft musical tone that marks 

 the spring note of S. carolinensis.-^ This observation, however, 

 has not been corroborated by others ; for Dr. Kennerly, in styl- 

 ing the note " peculiar", evidently refers to the generic char- 

 acter of the voice of Nuthatches, while Mr. Ridgway remarks 

 that the notes " are much weaker and are uttered in a finer 

 tone, some of them being, indeed, entirely different from those 

 of S. caroUnensis, though of the same general character ". In 

 this disagreement of the witnesses, I will not undertake to 

 judge ; but, in leaving" the case open, I suspect that it has been 

 somewhat " worked up ". 



I found the Slender-billed Nuthatches to be very common in 

 the pineries about Fort Whipple, where they reside all the 

 year ; and the birds seem to be distributed throughout the 

 wooded regions of the West, from the Rocky Mountains to 

 the Pacific. The northern limit is not precisely determined ; 

 but it is doubtless near the boundary of the United States. 

 In the mountains, the birds have been observed up to the 

 limits of arboreal vegetation. They seem to descend from the 

 more elevated regions in the autumn, but there is no regular 

 migration. We know that the birds endure extreme cold with 

 impunity, since they remain all winter about Colville, sometimes 

 braving a temperature of —30^ F. 



I am not aware that the nests and eggs of this particular 

 variety have been described ; there is no reason to suppose 

 they will be found to diller from those of S. caroUnensis. The 

 latter nests like a Titmouse — rather, like a Woodpecker, con- 

 sidering that it regularly digs a hole for itself, both sexes 

 working assiduously till an excavation, it may be fifteen or 

 twenty inches deep, is prepared for the reception of the nest. 



