WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH 9 



what, what, too, too, and ivhoot, whoot. These renderings represent 

 the song heard from different distances, and all of them suggest it 

 somewhat. Occasionally the pitch of the song falls slightly at the 

 end; sometimes the pitch undulates in slight degree; and rarely the 

 bird crowds 20 or more rapid notes into a song of normal length. 



Some years ago I had a male nuthatch under close observation where 

 I could hear it practically every day for a full round of the seasons. 

 The following quotation (W. M. Tyler, 1916) gives a summary of his 

 notes : 



The Nuthatch sings every month in the year ; even on the coldest days of Jan- 

 uary he occasionally sings a few times in the early morning — I have heard the 

 song when the temperature was zero; — in February songs are more frequently 

 heard, but singing during this month is still irregular. The chief singing period 

 is from the first of March until the last of May; during these 3 months the male 

 sings continually. June is a month of. comparative silence (I have only five rec- 

 ords of song) ; in July and August songs are heard almost as infrequently as in 

 winter, and during the last 4 months of the year singing is still rarer. In winter, 

 singing is confined to the early morning hours, — soon after sunrise — and even 

 during the spring it is rare, before the first of April, to hear a Nuthatch sing 

 in the afternoon. In autumn an occasional song is heard in the warmest part 

 of the day. 



In addition to his songs, our Nuthatch utters five different notes: (1) The 

 simplest of these, and by far the most frequently used note of his vocabulary, is 

 a high, short syllable, quietly pronounced, much aspirated, sounding like "hit." 

 This note is given when the bird is perched and when he is in the air, both by a 

 solitary bird and by the pair when they are together. It is both a soliloquizing 

 and a conversational note and is associated as a rule with a calm mood. (2) The 

 well-known ejaculation "quank," a call at certain distances remarkably sug- 

 gestive of the human voice, is often employed when the bird seems excited. At 

 such times the note is delivered with much vigor; on other occasions it is ap- 

 parently used as a call between a pair of birds. This note and the "hit" are the 

 only notes I have heard from the female bird. The "quank" call is very often 

 doubled and is frequently extended into a loud, rattling chatter. As in the case 

 of the song, the "quank" appears very much rounder, fuller and more resonant 

 when heard near at hand. At short range it has a rolling "r" sound. (3) A low- 

 toned "chuck" is sometimes addressed to the female. (4) On several occasions 

 I have heard the male bird utter a growl (deep in tone for a bird) as he dashed 

 in attack at a Sparrow. (5) A note which I have heard but rarely is a long, 

 high whistle with a rising, followed by a falling inflection. Our word "queer" 

 recalls the note which bears a decided resemblance to one of the Pine Grosbeak's 

 piping calls. The note has a ventriloquial property, appearing to come from a 

 distance when, in reality, the bird is close by. I heard this note several times 

 in late February and early March, generally between songs in the early morning. 



Francis H. Allen says in his notes for May 9, 1939 : "From a pair 

 feeding in trees I heard a note that was new to me often repeated. It^ 

 was a soft, two-syllabled note that might be rendered k dddp. Some- 

 times I saw that it came from the female, and I never was sure that 

 I heard it from* the male. The note was at least as high-pitched as 

 the familiar tilt, which the birds also uttered frequently. Twice I say 



