RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH 27 



Their food consists of about the same run of insects' eggs, insects and larvae as 

 is eaten by the White-breasted species. They greatly relish the seeds of tir, spruce, 

 and pine and in winter can generally be found feeding in a region where trees of 

 these species have seeded abundantly the past season. They deftly pry open the 

 scales of the cones, insert their bills and obtain the seed. Maple seed are some- 

 times eaten by them. They will also eat bits of rotten apple, suck sap from 

 the bleeding stumps of trees, take their share of bits of suet or meat exposed 

 and on a pinch eat seed of dock and other weeds which protrude above the 

 snow. 



C. K. Averill, Jr. (1888), emphasizes their fondness for the seeds 

 of the black spruce, writing : "In the Northern Adirondacks I noticed 

 that the Red-bellied Nuthatches seemed to be feeding exclusively on 

 the seeds of the black spruce. After that I watched them for a 

 number of days, and although they were abundant, I did not see them 

 feeding on anything else. Alighting on a bunch of cones at the 

 extremity of a bough, the Nuthatch would insert its bill between the 

 scales of a cone and draw out a seed. Then flying to a horizontal 

 bough nearby it would detach the wing which adheres to each seed, 

 letting it fall to the ground, swallow the seed, and fly back for another." 



Richard F. Miller (1914) describes the bird feeding in beds of 

 giant ragweed during the fall migration in northeastern Philadel- 

 phia, Pa. He says: "A remarkable feature, to me, about the oc- 

 currence of this little Sitta here during that fall, was their habit 

 of frequenting water courses fringed with dense growths of giant 

 ragweeds (Ambrosia trifida) , in which they sought food on the thick 

 stems, petioles and leaves, often feeding close to the ground. I al- 

 ways regarded this nuthatch as a denizen of the forest and its oc- 

 currence in these weedy growths surprised me. They exhibited no 

 fear as I entered the weeds, and if I kept quiet, they fed fearlessly 

 within close proximity of me, often only a yard away." 



Edward H. Forbush (1929) states that they "fly off into the air 

 after flying insects or search about in the long grass for them" and 

 P. M. Silloway (1907) speaks thus of this habit: "The red-breasted 

 nuthatch {Sitta canadensis) at times acts like a real flycatcher. Just 

 now one alighted on a tree-trunk near me, and while investigating 

 the bark crevices, twice he flew out from the trunk, captured a fly- 

 ing insect dexterously in the air, and returned to his gleaning on 

 the bole." 



Cordelia J. Stanwood (MS.) watched from a blind a pair feeding 

 their young in the nest. She says : "They came and went constantly ; 

 sometimes caterpillars dangled from their beaks, at other times their 

 bills bristled with crane-flies or moths. Once a bird carried in a 

 large white grub, at another time the larvae of a spruce bud moth, 

 and still again spruce bud moths themselves." 



William Brewster (1938), speaking of a nest in northern Maine, 

 says: "Quite regularly at intervals varying from 10 to 15 minutes 



