BIRDS OF AMERICA 



the bark of trees, thoujjh not for the purpose of 

 drinking sap. This habit lias caused careless 

 observers — of which there is always a bounti- 

 ful supply — to blame not only the Hairy and 

 the Downy, but even the little Nuthatch, which 

 does not and could not dig holes in bark, for the 

 destructive work of the true Sapsucker. In 

 point of fact, all of the work which the Nut- 

 hatch does on the trees is highly useful, since it 



Drawing by R. I. Brasher 



WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH (l nat. size) 



nd branches 



consists in ridding them of injurious insects and 

 larvae. For these it searches the crevices of the 

 bark with its sharp bill. The bird also often 

 forces into such crevices soft-shelled nuts, like 

 the acorn or chestnut, sometimes for safe-keep- 

 ing, or again in order to have them in a position 

 in which it may break the shell with its compara- 

 tively weak bill. The notion that the Nuthatch 

 can break the shells of hard nuts like the hickory- 

 nut or the walnut, is. of course, an entirely mis- 

 taken one, and to that extent the bird's name is 

 misleading. 



The Nuthatch's " song " is a series of short 

 notes resembling the syllables too-too-too, uttered 

 most frequently in the mating season ; but its 

 more characteristic and common call note is a 

 sharp and often-repeated single syllable, gener- 

 ally transliterated as yank or ank, and usually 

 described as distinctly nasal. Other observers 

 think, however, that this call sounds much more 

 like the words " part " or " art," — at any rate 

 the consonant " r " is distinctly audible in it. 

 This note often is rapidly reiterated, so that the 

 effect is a sort of chatter, which Dr. Chapman 

 describes as " mirthless laughter." 



One of the Nuthatch's most engaging quali- 

 ties is his friendly curiosity. Stand or sit motion- 

 less near the base of a tree in which the bird is 

 working, and he is almost certain to come hitch- 

 ing down the trunk, head foremost, to gaze 

 squarely into your face with his beady little black 

 eyes and inquire politely as to your health and 

 whether all is as it should be with you. If you 

 inform him quietly that you are very well and 

 quite content with your lot (being careful mean- 

 while to make no movement of any kind), he 

 will express his satisfaction courteously, apolo- 

 gize for being so tremendously busy, and whisk 

 away to the next tree. George Gladden. 



The White-breasted Nuthatch gets its living 

 from the trunks and branches of trees, over 

 which it creeps from daylight to dark. Insects 

 and spiders constitute a little more than 50 per 

 cent, of its food. The largest items of these 

 are beetles, moths, and caterpillars, with ants 

 and wasps. The animal food is all in the bird's 

 favor except a few ladybird beetles. More than 

 half of the vegetable food consists of mast — 

 acorns and other nuts or large seeds. One-tenth 

 of the food is grain, mostly waste corn. The 

 Nuthatch does no known injury but much good. 



Slightly varying forms of the White-breasted 

 Nuthatch are : the Florida Wliite-breasted Nut- 

 hatch {Sitfa carolincnsis afkinsi), found in 

 Florida and along the Gulf coast to Mississippi; 

 the Slender-billed Nuthatch {Sitta carolincnsis 

 acnlcata) of the Pacific coast region from British 

 Columbia to northern Lower California; and the 

 Rocky Mountain, or Nelson's, Nuthatch (Sitta 

 carolincnsis nelsoni) which lives in the moun- 

 tain districts of western United States and 

 British Columbia and northern Mexico. 



