WHITE-BELLIED NUTHATCH. 101 
oddities, and wander about giving concerts wher- 
ever they go, till the woods are alive again, and 
we forget that we have ever missed the summer 
birds. 
When the drums get too much absorbed in 
their tree trunks, the alto and air go serenading 
by themselves, and who knows what gossip they 
indulge in about the grave magicians’ day dreams, 
or how gayly they swear to stand by each other 
and never be put down by these drums! They 
are old chums, and work together as happily as 
Mr. and Mrs. Spratt, the chickadee whistling his 
merry chick-a-dee-dee, dee, dee as he clings to a 
twig in the tree top, and the nuthatch answering 
back with-a jolly little yank, yank, yank, as he 
hangs, head down, on the side of a tree trunk. 
What a comic figure he makes there ! 
Trying to get a view of you, he throws his head 
back and stretches himself away from the tree till 
you wonder he does not fall off. His black cap 
and slate-blue coat are almost hidden, he raises 
his white throat and breast up so high. 
“ Devil-down-head ” he is called from this habit 
of walking down the trees, since instead of walk- 
ing straight down backwards, as the woodpeck- 
ers do, he prefers to obey the old adage and 
“follow his nose.” <A lady forgetting his name 
once aptly described him to me as “ that little up- 
side-down bird,” for he will run along the under 
side of a branch with as much coolness as a fly 
would cross the ceiling. 
