GRAY-HEADED NUTHATCH 43 



aside occasionally to examine the thicker vegetation about a stag- 

 nant pool, or to explore the more abundant bird life in one of the 

 few scattered "cypress heads"; or in some wide open space, he may 

 flush the stately sandhill crane from a larger grassy pond. But the 

 three characteristic birds, which one finds everywhere in the flatwoods, 

 are the red-cockaded woodpecker, the pinewoods sparrow, and this 

 little nuthatch. The woodpecker climbs upward on the trunks of the 

 pines ; the sparrow flushes suddenly from any one of the many clumps 

 of saw palmetto that carpet the forest floor and almost as suddenly 

 drops out of sight into another patch; and the nuthatch may be seen 

 climbing upward, downward, or sidewise, in true nuthatch fashion, 

 on the trunk of a pine ; or, perhaps more often, a little troop of them 

 may be seen foraging in the tree tops and advertising their presence 

 with their gentle twittering. 



There is not much more to be said about the habits of the gray- 

 headed nuthatch, which do not seem to differ materially from those of 

 the more northern race. The eggs are indistinguishable. The meas- 

 urements of 28 eggs average 15.0 by 11.8 millimeters; the eggs show- 

 ing the four extremes measure 16.1 by 12.1, 15.8 by 12.8, 14.1 by 11.2, 

 and 14.4 by 11.0 millimeters. 

 The following account is contributed by Frederick V. Hebard : 

 "This race seems to be valid, since it is distinguishable in life from 

 the brown-headed nuthatch with comparative ease, although their 

 habits seem the same. The range is stated to be 'Peninsula of Florida' 

 (A. O. U. 1931), but the nesting form in southeastern Georgia is un- 

 questionably gray in crown color and within the size limit of this 

 race. Comparatively limited records indicate that the gray-headed 

 withdraws into Florida in cold winters and is replaced to a limited 

 degree by the brown-headed nuthatch. In warm winters the species is 

 so much more common that this range withdrawal may not then take 

 place. In all years our little friend will be present by the middle of 

 February and nest-building commences shortly thereafter. During 

 the winter this species is usually seen 20 feet or more above the ground 

 either in family flocks, flitting from pine tree top to pine tree top, or 

 less commonly inching up or down a pine tree trunk. During nesting 

 season they are usually seen from 20 feet down, but as soon as nesting 

 is over they seem to return to the tree tops, returning earthward only 

 to fill one of their feeding stations in a rotting sapling with acorns 

 for the nesting season or perhaps to associate with other species in a 

 bird wave (cf. Murphey, 1937) of which they do not seem to be an 

 integral part. These waves seem to result from animation of insect 

 life in damp, warmish weather after a chill. This results in true 

 commensalism in such species as the Carolina chickadee, tufted tit- 

 mouse, ruby-crowned kinglet, and black and white and orange-crowned 

 warblers, which I consider integral parts of bird waves, and in an 



