BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH 41 



quent cry of the Nuthatch is remarkably like the Goldfinch's meditative 

 heyr-heh., — indeed, I have sometimes mistaken one for the other. Both 

 sexes of the present bird have several other call-notes, all of which are 

 characterized by a certain reedy harshness rendering them quite unlike 

 the usual utterances of the two Northern species of the genus." 



Field marks. — This small nuthatch could hardly be mistaken for the 

 larger white-breasted species, and it is so plainly colored that it could 

 easily be distinguished from the more conspicuously marked red- 

 breasted nuthatch. 



Winter. — The brown-headed nuthatch seems to be a permanent resi- 

 dent even in the more northern portions of its range ; in North Carolina, 

 Mr. Skinner (1928) found "no variation in numbers during the winter 

 or the migration seasons of other birds." I can find no evidence of 

 migration elsewhere, and apparently the birds remain all winter in 

 or near their breeding haunts, with only limited wanderings into 

 neighboring open spaces, or occasionally into the trees of villages and 

 towns. They are much in evidence in winter, when they are associated 

 in bands of from half a dozen to two dozen birds, made up of one or 

 several families. These jolly bands of active playful birds are inter- 

 esting to watch, as they chase each other about, almost never still, as 

 if too full of energy and vitality. At this season they often join the 

 loose gatherings of kinglets, titmice, pine warblers, bluebirds, and 

 small woodpeckers that are roaming through the woods in winter, 

 though such associations are probably due more to chance than to 

 intent. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Southeastern United States ; nonmigratory. 



The brown-headed nuthatch breeds north to Arkansas (Newport) ; 

 southeastern Missouri (possibly Ink, Shannon County) ; northern 

 Mississippi (luka) ; northwestern South Carolina (Spartanburg) ; 

 eastern Virginia (Amelia and Petersburg) ; eastern Maryland (Queen 

 Annes County); and southern Delaware (Seaford). East to the 

 Atlantic coast and Bahama Islands (Great Bahama). South to 

 southern Florida (Royal Palm Hammock) and the Gulf coast. West 

 to eastern Texas (Houston) and Arkansas (Newport). 



The entire species as above outlined is divided into three subspecies 

 or geographic races. The typical brown-headed nuthatch {S. 'p. pus- 

 ilia) occupies all of the continental range except Florida, where the 

 birds have been described as the gray-headed nuthatch {S. p. caniceps) . 

 The birds of the Bahamas are a separate race. 



Casual records. — Several were seen near Keokuk, Iowa, in May 1893 ; 

 a specimen was taken at St. Louis, Mo., on May 6, 1878; a specimen 

 was obtained at Elmira, N. Y., May 24, 1888 ; while one was observed 

 closely at Haddonfield, N. J., during the winter, about 1876. 



