X88 NORTH. AMERICAN BIRDS. 



He supposed this bird to have a more northern distribution than belongs to 

 it. In the interior they are met with, according to Audubon, as far north as 

 the southern shores of Lake Erie, where he found them in the autumn. Mr. 

 Audubon found them more numerous in New Jersey than anywhere else. In 

 Ohio and Kentucky they are comparatively rare. Mr. Ridgway informs me 

 that this is a rather common species in Southern Illinois in the thickest 

 damp woods in the bottom-lands along the Wabash River. 



According to Wilson, these birds are among the nimblest of its family, and 

 are remarkably fond of spiders, darting about wherever there is a probability 

 of finding these insects. Where branches are broken and the leaves withered, 

 it searches among them in preference, making a great rustling as it hunts for 

 its prey. Their stomachs are generally found full of spiders and caterpillars. 



These birds are arboreal in their preferences, residing in the interior ol' 

 woods, and are seldom seen in the open fields. They resort to the ground 

 and turn over the dry leaves in quest of insects. They are very unsuspi- 

 cious and easy of approach. 



Nuttall describes their notes and their habits as resembling the common 

 Parus atricajjillus, and remarks that they are constantly uttering a com- 

 plaining call, sounding like tshe-de-de. 



Until quite recently, nothing has been positively known in regard to its 

 nesting. Audubon has described its nest as made of dry mosses and the 

 fallen bloom of the hickory and the chestnut, and as built in bushes several 

 feet from the ground. He descrilies the eggs as cream-colored, marked about 

 the larger end with reddish-brown. These descriptions have not been con- 

 firmed, and all our information has led us to look for its nest on the ground. 



Mr. Trippe states that it is found, but is not at all common, near Orange, 

 N. Y., where it arrives about the middle of May. It has, at that time, a 

 rapid, chattering note, and it always, he says, keeps near the ground, and, 

 besides its chattering song, has in June a series of odd notes, much like, 

 those of the White-breasted Nuthatch, but more varied and musical, yet 

 hardly entitled to be called a song. 



Mr. T. H. Jackson of Westchester, Penn., in the American Naturalist for 

 December, 1869, mentions finding the nest and eggs of this bird. We give 

 his account in his own words : " On the 6th of June, 1869, I found a nest 

 of this species containing five eggs. It was placed in a hollow on the ground, 

 nnich like the nests of the Oven-Bird {Seiurus am^ocapillus), and was hidden 

 from sight by the dry leaves that lay thickly around. The nest was com- 

 posed externally of dead leaves, mostly those of the beech, while the inte- 

 rior was prettily lined with the fine, thread-like stalks of the hair-moss, 

 {Folytricliium). Altogether it was a very neat structure, and looked to me as 

 though the owner was habitually a ground nester. The eggs most nearly 

 resemble those of the White-bellied Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis), though the 

 markings are fewer and less distinct. So close did the female sit that I 

 captured her without difficulty by placing my hat over the nest." 



