22 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Its range was not fully known at that time, but it is now known 

 to include the highlands of Mexico from Oaxaca to Nayarit and 

 southern Chihuahua, north to the Chisos Mountains, Tex. Sitta 

 carolmensis oherholseri Brandt is now regarded as a synonym of 

 7)iexicana. 



SITTA CANADENSIS Linnaeus 



RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH 



Plates &-11 



CONTBIBUTED BY WiNSOE MAEKETT TTLEE 

 HABITS 



The red-breasted nuthatch is a happy, jolly little bird, surprisingly 

 quick and agile in his motions. He has the habit of progressing over 

 the bark of trees like his larger relative, the whitebreast, but his tempo 

 is much more rapid, and he extends his journeys more frequently to 

 the smaller branches. Here he winds about the little twigs out to 

 the end, among the pine needles, moving very fast — up, down, and 

 around — changing his direction quickly and easily, seeming always 

 in a hurry to scramble over the branches. He is more sociable, too, 

 than the larger bird, and when a little company is feeding together 

 they keep up a cheery chatter among themselves. We find them at 

 their best when gathered in the northern forests at the close of summer. 

 Then they give their high, tin- whistle note, hng^ back and forth on all 

 sorts of pitches, varying its inflection, ringing unheard of changes 

 on this simple call, and when they are together thus, they use also a 

 squealing note — a very high, nasal, little piglike or mouselike squeal — 

 and a short explosive kick^ or a rapid series of kicks. The effect of 

 these notes, given by a dozen birds as they chase one another about, 

 is very jolly. The little birds seem so happy, animated, and lively 

 and their voices have such a range of expression that they almost 

 talk — a playful gathering of talkative, irrepressible, woodland gnomes. 



Spring and courtship. — Cordelia J. Stanwood, of Ellsworth, Maine, 

 noted (MS.) that a male bird she had watched during winter appeared 

 with a mate in March. "Five years later," she says, "another red- 

 breasted nuthatch wintered at 'the sign of the suet', and he also selected 

 a mate in March, and so that it would seem that Sitta canadensis 

 chooses his helpmeet early in the season. However, even in years in 

 which the birds winter here in goodly numbers, the nuthatches are 

 not common until April or May. Then in their favorite evergreen 

 woods their merry pipings fill the land. They tap all over each dead 

 tree to find suitable nesting quarters. Undoubtedly they start nest 

 holes in many trees before they find one that is exactly adapted to their 

 needs. One season I followed for many days a pair that nested in a 

 beautiful tract of mixed woodland. I saw them attempt to excavate 



