RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH 29 



near the adult Nuthatch on the rail and he picked at my finger ; then he flew 

 into the captain's cabin and gathered insects from the window. There were 

 many small dead moths on board that seemed to be particularly relished. I 

 noticed two Nuthatches on the chains of the smoke stack undisturbed by the 

 constant vibrations, and, what is still more surprising, by the deafening steam 

 fog-horn that was blown at frequent intervals within a few feet of them. 



The habit of flying straight into the nest hole is mentioned by two 

 observers: Charles W. Michael (1934) says: "When feeding small 

 yomig the parent nuthatch dives on the wing directly into the nest- 

 hole," and William Brewster (1938) remarks: "She usually flew in, 

 without so much as touching her feet to the edge of the hole." 



William Brewster (1886) speaks thus of the bird in the Black Moun- 

 tains of North Carolina in summer: "In the balsams of the Black 

 Mountains, from about 5,000 feet to the top of the main ridge (G,000 

 feet), this Nuthatch was more abundant than I have ever seen it 

 elsewhere. Whenever I stopped to listen or look around its whining, 

 nasal call was sure to be one of the first sounds that came to my ears, 

 and often three or four different birds would be heard at once. They 

 were usually invisible — high in the tops of the matted evergreens, 

 but I occasionally caught sight of one hanging head downward at the 

 end of a branch, or winding up the main stem of the tree." Walter B. 

 Barrows (1912) calls attention to the bird's habit of storing seeds 

 "in the punctures made by the Sapsucker in various species of trees." 



Francis H. Allen watched 14 of these nuthatches moving in and 

 out of the conifers near his house, in September, of which he (MS.) 

 says : "At first I saw one perched on the tiptop of each of two neigh- 

 boring Norway spruces. They kept up a constant piping and flicked 

 their wings continually — that is, partly spread them. Later others 

 appeared and all performed likewise. When they flew from tree to 

 tree, it was with an irregular flight. This was probably a species of 

 mock courtship." 



Francis Zirrer (MS.) writes to us : "At the feeding table tliey fight 

 and angrily chase one another away. They are great hoarders, which 

 trait occasionally leads to amusing incidents. The woodpeckers, 

 especially the hairy, watch the hoarding with interest, and, as soon 

 as the nuthatch leaves to get another piece, fly to the place and appro- 

 priate the morsel. This lasts sometimes for quite a while until the 

 little bird gets wise and flies away scolding." 



Voice. — Of the two commonest notes of the red-breasted nuthatch 

 one is a short, faint little note, heard only when the bird is near. It 

 is suggested by the word hit, pronounced emphatically in a whispered 

 voice, and is used, apparently, as a conversational note, exchanged 

 between a pair of birds or among the members of a flock. To my ear 

 it is indistinguishable from the corresponding note of the whitebreast. 

 The other commonly heard note is a far-carrying, nasal cry with the 



