NUTHATCHES AND CREEPERS 



20 1 



uniform black with a bluish or bluish green gloss; 

 back, shoulders, lesser wing-coverts, rump, and upper 

 tail-coverts, uniform bluish-gray : middle, greater, and 

 primary wing-coverts, black margined with bluish-gray 

 (like color of back), the tips of the greater coverts, 

 sometimes whitish forming a narrow indistinct band; 

 inner wing-quills with inner webs black ; their outer 

 webs bluish-yniy : that of third with an elongated patch 

 of black, rounded at til^. the tip and edge bluish-gray; 

 secondaries, black, edged with bluish-gray ; primaries 

 blackish slate or slate color; two middle tail-feathers, 

 plain bluish-gray, rest of tail-feathers, black crossed by 

 a band of white; a stripe over the eyes, sides of head, 

 sides of neck, and under parts, plain white or grayish- 



The Nuthatches and Chickadees one may 

 reckon among the comparatively few " upside- 

 down birds " he has known, and it is a curious 

 fact that, thou.e;h they are totally ditYerent 

 species, thev seem to like one another's society, 

 and frequently are found working and frolicking 

 through the woods together. A bond of sy in- 



white; anal region and tail-coverts, light chestnut; 

 under wing-coverts, black; under primary coverts and 

 basal portion of inner webs of longer primaries, white 

 forming a conspicuous patch; iris, brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : Usually in a dead stump 

 or tree from 2 to 60 feet up. sometimes in a deserted 

 Woodpecker hole; loosely constructed of soft felted 

 rabbits' fur, leaves, feathers, and hair. Eggs : 5 to 8. 

 white or pinkish-white, spotted with chestnut and a 

 few lavender specks. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America; north to 

 New Brunswick and northern Ontario ; west to eastern 

 edge of Great Plains; south to Georgia and Gulf States 

 (e.xcept coast belt). 



clambers entirely around a horizontal limb. The 

 evident ease with which it assumes the inverted 

 position is due chiefly to its lack of dependence 

 upon its tail-feathers, which the true Wood- 

 ]:)ecker alwavs emplovs as a Jirop, and bv means 

 of which it holds its body at a perceptible angle 

 from the line of the limb or tree trunk to which 



Courtesy of An 

 WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH 

 A bird of topsy-tiirvy habits 



pathy may be detected in their common topsy- 

 turvy habits. It is clear that temperamentally 

 the birds are similar, and that the Nuthatch is 

 as much a small buy of the feathered world as is 

 the Chickadee, thou.gh perhaps a somewhat more 

 serious-minded one. 



The \\'hite-breasted species is much the com- 

 moner rejiresentative of the two which occur in 

 the eastern United States — the other being the 

 Red-breasted. It is a common winter resident 

 in the southern New England States, and in the 

 lower Hudson Valley. It prefers the deciduous 

 trees to the conifers and in that respect differs 

 from the Red-breasted, .^s has been intimated, 

 it is a decidedly industrious l)ird anrl is almost 

 incessantly on the move. It is fpiite as likely to 

 be upside down as right side up while it ex- 

 plores the trunk and limbs of a tree, and it often 



it clings. In this position the Woodpecker can 

 strike with its bill a much harder blow than 

 can be delivered by the Nuthatch, which makes 

 little use of its tail either in climbing or in dig- 

 ging. Consequently the Nuthatch's bill is long, 

 pointed, and rather slender, while the \\'ood- 

 pecker's is stout and wedge-shaped at the ex- 

 tremity. 



The term " sapsucker," which is often applied 

 to this bird, is an unconscious but unqualified 

 slander, due of course to ignorance. The true 

 Sapsucker is a totally different bird, and does 

 not even faintly resemble the Nuthatches. Prob- 

 ably this confusion arose from the fact that both 

 the Downv Woodpecker, which is about the size 

 of the Nuthatch, though its appearance is very 

 different, and the Hairy, which resembles the 

 Downy but is considerablv larger, dig holes in 



