THE WHITE-BREASTED AND RED-BREASTED 

 NUTHATCHES 



By FRANCIS H. ALLEN 



'^^e i^attonal Si&Qociation of j^Lutiubon ^ocittits 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 59 



The Nuthatches are called, I believe, in some places, or by 

 Habits some persons, "Devil Downheads." There is, indeed, something 



eerie about these little birds with their quaint form and queer 

 ways, but I should much prefer to call them elves rather than devils. That 

 quaint form is closely correlated with the queer ways. If a bird wants to hop 

 down a tree-trunk as well as up it, he must dispense with the use of his tail 

 as a support and must depend entirely upon his two feet, and to balance him- 

 self properly not only must the feet be strong, the hind toe long, and the 

 claws sharp and hooked, but the whole bird must be made as short and com- 

 pact as Nature can make it. Now the Nuthatch needs a fairly long bill to 

 poke into the crevices of the bark for his insect food and a fairly stout one to 

 pry off the chips and dig it out, so that the economy in length must be in his 

 neck and his tail. And here we have our bird, as Nature has made him and as 

 Mr. Brasher has drawn him, — a short, squat figure, with almost no neck and 

 with a tail only long enough to balance his bill and steady him in flight, but 

 with capable feet and a serviceable bill. 



But why should a bird wish to travel downwards on a tree-trunk? To get 

 his daily bread in the way that seems most natural and easy to him. Evidently 

 the Nuthatch is filling a gap in nature. He would not have adopted so unusual 

 a method of feeding if it had not stood him in good stead. I suspect that by 

 approaching his prey from above he detects insects and insect-eggs in the 

 crevices of the bark which would be hidden from another point of view. The 

 Woodpeckers and the Creepers can take care of the rest. Of course these 

 other birds get something of a downward view as they bend their heads for- 

 ward, but the Nuthatch has the advantage of seeing some insects before he 

 gets to them which even the Creeper's gentle approach would scare into 

 closer hiding. 



To most of us in the northeastern states the Nuthatch is the 

 Notes White-breasted Nuthatch, and we know him best as a 



welcome pensioner on our winter bounty and an industrious 

 gleaner of insect food from the trunks and branches of the leafless trees in 

 autumn, winter, and early spring. We love his familiar unmusical notes, 

 which seem so friendly to us, perhaps because they really express an unusual 

 appreciation of the companionship of his kind. The most striking of these is 

 the one commonly interpreted as quank. To my ear, however, though nasal, 



(316) 



