42 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Egg dates.— GQOvg\£i\ 22 records, March 11 to July 20; 11 records, 

 March 24 to April 11, indicating the height of the season. 



Florida : 19 records, March 4 to May 10; 10 records April 2 to 14. 

 North Carolina : 19 records, April 4 to May 29. 

 Texas : 5 records, March 8 to April 18. 



SITTA PUSILLA CANICEPS Bangs 



GRAY-HEADED NUTHATCH 



HABITS 



The brown-headed nuthatch of peninsular Florida has now become 

 the gray-headed nuthatch, not because it has grown gray with old 

 age, and not because its head is very decidedly gray at that, but be- 

 cause the keen eyes of its describer have noted this and other minor 

 differences. Outram Bangs (1898) gives it the following subspecific 

 characters: "Size smaller than S. pusilJa pusiUa; bill larger; top of 

 head much lighter brown, the feathers tipped and edged still lighter 

 — often grayish ; loral and post-ocular streak dark brown, in marked 

 contrast to color of top of head; white spot on nape usually less 

 extensive ; under parts slightly darker, more plumbeous." 



The gray-headed nuthatch is recorded by Arthur H. Howell (1932) 

 as "an abundant resident in northwestern Florida; moderately com- 

 mon in the central and southern parts." It has been taken at least 

 as far south as Miami. Its home is in the extensive open pine forests 

 of the State, known as the "flatwoods." The northern tourist, seek- 

 ing a winter sojourn in Florida, rides in the southbound train for 

 hour after hour with nothing to see from the car window but appar- 

 ently endless miles of uninteresting fiat pine barrens, until he wearies 

 of the monotony. He does not appreciate the intriguing vastness 

 of these almost boundless flatwoods; nor does he admire the stately 

 beauty of tlie longleaf pines and the picturesque charm of the Carib- 

 bean pines. Only the naturalist fully appreciates them, for "there is 

 a nameless charm in the flatwoods, there is enchantment for the real 

 lover of nature in their very sameness. One feels a sense of their 

 infinity as the forest stretches away into space beyond the limits of 

 vision ; they convey to the mind a feeling of boundless freedom. The 

 soft, brilliant sunshine filters down through the needle-like leaves 

 and falls in patches on the flower covered floor ; there is a low, hum- 

 ming sound, something mimicking the patter of raindrops, as the 

 warm southeast wind drifts through the trees; even the loneliness 

 has an attraction," as so well expressed by Charles Torrey Simp- 

 son (1923). 



One may wander for many miles through these parklike woods, 

 along the winding, grass-grown cart roads, but he never seems to get 

 anywhere, as the trees seem to lead him on indefinitely ; he may turn 



