PEEPERS AND CREEPERS 121 



would seem likely to give him a severe headache, if 

 birds ever have such things." 



" This is the bird I saw the first day I went to 

 the orchard with Olive ; but why is he called a Nut- 

 hatch ? " asked Nat. 



" Because, besides liking to eat insects and their 

 grubs or their eggs, he is also very fond of some kinds 

 of nuts, like beech and chestnuts," said the Doctor, 

 '' and he may be obliged to live entirely upon them in 

 winter, when insects fail him. Having no teeth to 

 gnaw and crack them open as squirrels do, he takes a 

 nut in his claws and either holding it thus, or jamming 

 it tight into a crack in the bark, then uses his bill for a 

 hatchet to split or hack the nut open. I have seen the 

 bird crack hard nuts in this way, that it would take 

 very strong teeth to break. People used to call him 

 ' Nuthack ' or ' Nuthacker ' ; these words mean exactly 

 the same thing, but we always say ' Nuthatch ' now." 



" Then there are Nuthatches up in the hickory 

 woods," said Rap, "but I never knew their real name 

 until now ; for the miller calls them ' white-bellied 

 creepers.' Last summer I found one of their nests, 

 when I wasn't looking for it either." 



" Do they build here ? " asked Olive. " I thought they 

 only visited us in winter. I don't remember ever hear- 

 ing one sing, or seeing one in late spring or summer." 



" They live and nest everywhere in the eastern part 

 of the country," said the Doctor ; " but they are very 

 silent and shy except in the autumn and winter. In fact, 

 this Nuthatcli keeps his nest a secret from everybody 

 but his wife and the Dryad of tlie tree in which he 

 places it ; he will not even trust the little branches 



