52 BULLETIN 19 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Food.— Proi. F. E. L. Beal (1907) examined only 31 stomachs of 

 the California races of the pygmy nuthatch and found the food to be 

 divided into approximately 83 percent animal matter and 17 percent 

 vegetable. The largest item of animal food was Hymenoptera, mostly 

 wasps with a few ants, amounting to 38 percent of the whole. He- 

 miptera came next, 23 percent; "a large proportion of these belong 

 to the family Cercopidae, commonly known as spittle-insects, from 

 the fact that they develop inside of a froth-like substance resembling 

 saliva produced in summer upon grass and various plants and trees. 

 While none of these insects have yet become pests, there can be no 

 doubt that collectively they do considerable harm to plants, as some- 

 times they are very abundant and subsist entirely upon their sap." 

 Eighteen out of twenty stomachs from the pine woods of Pacific Grove 

 "contained remains of Cercopidae, and six were filled with them. The 

 average for the 18 stomachs is a little more than 76 percent of all the 

 food." Beetles of various families formed about 12 percent of the 

 food, caterpillars 8 percent, and spiders 1 percent. "The vegetable 

 portion is made up almost entirely of seeds, of which a majority are 

 those of conifers, as was to be expected from the habits of the bird." 



A few other items have been mentioned by others. R. C. Tate 

 (1925) adds, from Oklahoma, moths, pine nuts, and grasshoppers. 

 Junius Henderson (1927) quotes from Professor Aughey's first report 

 that "four Nebraska stomachs averaged 23 locusts, 4 other insects and 

 four seeds each." 



Most of the pygmy nuthatch's food is obtained in the topmost 

 branches of the pine, where it climbs over and under the branches and 

 out to the outermost twigs and among the pine needles. But it also 

 forages on the trunks in true nuthatch fashion, looking for hidden 

 insects, or resorts to the ground to pick up insects and seeds. It can 

 crack the pine nuts with its strong little bill and pick out tlie seeds. 

 It has been seen darting out into the air after flying insects, or flutter- 

 ing in front of tlie terminal twigs of the conifers to pick oif insects 

 while poised in the air. 



Behavior. — As may be seen from some of the above quotations, 

 Pygn^y nuthatches are tame, confiding little birds, showing great con- 

 fidence in human beings or being quite oblivious to their intimate 

 presence ; and they have even been known to pursue their nesting activ- 

 ities close to those of humans, apparently unafraid. Their behavior 

 is much like that of their near relatives, the brown-headed nuthatches 

 of the southeastern States ; like them they live mostly in the tree tops 

 in merry little parties; they are even more gregarious than their east- 

 ern cousins. Except when the pairs are busy with their family affairs, 

 these little birds are almost always seen in small flocks, which increase 

 greatly in size during fall and winter. Mr. Swarth (1904b) says: 

 "During the migrations they seem to form a sort of nucleus for other 



