WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 193 



rigors of the severest winter weather, his note is still heard in the bleak 

 and leafless woods, and among the howling branches. Sometimes the 

 rain, freezing as it falls, encloses every twig, and even the trunk of the 

 tree, in a hard transparent coat or shell of ice. On these occasions, I 

 have observed his anxiety and dissatisfaction, at being with difficulty 

 able to make his way along the smooth surface ; at these times generally 

 abandoning the trees, gleaning about the stables around the house, mix- 

 ing among the fowls, entering the barn, and examining the beams and 

 rafters, and every place where he may pick up a subsistence. 



The name Nuthatch has been bestowed on this family of birds from 

 their supposed practice of breaking nuts by repeated hatchings, or ham- 

 merings with their bills. Soft-shelled nuts, such as chestnuts, chinko- 

 pins, and hazel-nuts, they may probably be able to demolish, though I 

 have never yet seen them so engaged ; but it must be rather in search 

 of maggots that sometimes breed there, than for the kernel. It is how- 

 ever said that they lay up a large store of nuts for winter ; but as I 

 have never either found any of their magazines, or seen them collecting 

 them, I am inclined to doubt the fact. From the great numbers I have 

 opened at all seasons of the year, I have every reason to believe that 

 ants, small seeds, insects and their larvfe, form their chief subsistence, 

 such matters alone being uniformly found in their stomachs. Neither 

 can I see what necessity they could have to circumambulate the trunks 

 of trees, with such indefatigable and restless diligence, while bushels of 

 nuts lay scattered round their roots. As to the circumstance mentioned 

 by Dr. Plott, of the European Nuthatch " putting its bill into a crack 

 in the bough of a tree, and making such a violent sound, as if it was 

 rending asunder," this, if true, would be sufficient to distinguish it from 

 the species we have been just describing, which possesses no such 

 faculty. The female differs little from the male in color, chiefly in the 

 black being less deep on the head and wings. 



Vol. I.— 13 



