FLORIDA NUTHATCH 13 



easily, and in some cases impossible, by the color of these parts. 

 * * * The variation in the Florida form is mainly in the direction 

 of the western subspecies aculeata^ but the bill is less attenuated ; the 

 gray of the secondaries is purer, and there are other minor differences 

 of coloration." 



He says that this nuthatch was not common around Tarpon 

 Springs, where his type was collected. I cannot remember having 

 ever seen a white-breasted nuthatch on any of my trips to Florida 

 and have no reference to it in my notes, though I have traveled over 

 the State rather extensively. A. H. Howell (1932) refers to it as 

 "a fairly common resident in northern and middle Florida; casual 

 in southern Florida." Apparently, it occurs in southern Florida only 

 in winter. He says that it is "found chiefly in open pine forests, and 

 its nests are said to be placed in pine stubs on tracts that have been 

 cut and burned over." H. H. Bailey (1925) refers to it as a resident 

 the year round, in northern and central Florida, "breeding sparingly." 



According to Arthur T. Wayne (1910), the range of this subspecies 

 should be extended northward into the coast region of South Carolina, 

 "for the birds that are resident on the coast are certainly much nearer 

 atkinsi than typical caroUnensis of the interior of the State." Breed- 

 ing adult females that he collected "had the whole top of the head, 

 as well as the nape, deep black," the well-marked character of atkinsi. 

 He says of its haunts: "This nuthatch is by no means common and 

 a forest of from one hundred to three hundred acres seldom contains 

 more than three or four pairs. The birds frequent wooded land, 

 showing a preference for mixed pine woods; but I have also found 

 them in the largest swamps, where they are generally in pairs, never 

 congregating in small flocks like the Brown-headed Nuthatch." 



Dr. H. C. Oberholser (1938) refers to it as "an uncommon perma- 

 nent resident," in Louisiana, and says : "It is an inhabitant of wood- 

 lands, orchards, and other cultivated areas, shade trees about houses, 

 and in fact even the parks and streets of the towns and cities." 



Nesting. — Mr. Bailey (1925) says that, in Florida, "they prefer the 

 natural cavities of the several species of oaks and other hard-wood 

 trees in which to place their nest of bark-fiber, fur and hair ; though 

 occasionally they may use the old cavity of the smaller woodpeckers." 

 S. A. Grimes has sent me several photographs of nesting sites of this 

 nuthatch, taken in Duval County, Fla. (pis. 5, 6). One of these nests 

 was in a natural cavity, a long, narrow slit, in the trunk of a longleaf 

 pine ; others were in dead or living pines, and one was in a cypress. 



In South Carolina, Wayne (1910) remarks tliat the nest is hard to 

 discover, as we all know ; he found only three nests. His first nest was 

 in an abandoned hole of the red-cockaded woodpecker, in a living pine 

 tree 20 feet from the ground, and a set of five eggs was taken from it on 

 March 18, 1903. He took another set of five eggs, the second set of this 



