THE RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 



291 



and he [niblislu's forthwilli a Ijroadside of sensalioiial editurial matter 



which no thoughtful reader of the woods can overlotjk. The full 



war-dance song of the Red-breasted Nuthatch, executed, foi: instance, 



when he hears the false notes of the Screech Owl, is something like this: 



Nyad nydd nyad nydd nydd nyda 



ii\d nvd nvd iiyd nyd nyd iiyd iiyd nyd nydnyd and soon, in an incoherent 



strain of wild excitement, 



until he runs clean out of 



breath and quits, exhausted. 



The early notes of this orgic 



rhapsody are interrogative and 



penetrating; the succeeding 



notes are a sort of truni])eting 



challenge for the intruder to 



show himself ; failing which. 



the irate Creeper drops into a 



lower, non-resonant series, of 



doubtful meaning and more 



doubtful morals. But the bird 



is not always angry. 



(1 th 



nasal call sounding on migra- 

 tion has a friendly f|uality 

 about it which brings one has- 

 tening out-of-doors to greet 

 the traveler again. Contrary 

 to an early report, the Red- 

 breast is c|uite at home in our 

 deeper forests. Indeed, his is 

 one of the most characteristic 

 voices of the solemn fir woods. 

 He still claims an interest 

 however, in decirluous timber, 

 in bottom lands, and in the 

 oak trees which border the 

 prairies. In western Washing- 

 ton, it is cjuite impossible to 

 trace or to estimate the bird's 

 migrations, since it is jiresent everywhere at all seasons: but it is probably 

 much less abundant with us in winter. Tn eastern Washington, it is 

 confined for the most part to the region of pine timber in summer. 

 and altho it also w'inters here irregularly, the numbers in this part 

 of the ."^tate are largely augmented by migrants during M;iy ;nid vSeptember. 



REDBRE.X'^TED XUXnATCII. 



