1132 Rei'Ort of State Geologist. 



Nuthatch, is to keep in subjection the host of insects that infest the 

 trunks and limbs of trees. They have a large contract on hand and 

 are kept continually busy. Their call is yank, yank, which may be 

 heard at most seasons, being almost or wholly wanting in late summer. 

 In spring they vary this with a monotonous calling, which they may 

 think is a song. Mr. F. M. Chapman gives it as a "tenor hah-hah-hah- 

 liali — sounding strangely like mirthless laughter." 



In April, after the mixed company has broken up, each member to 

 attend to business of his own, the Nuthatches become more retiring, 

 and frequent the woods, groves, thickets and timber in the river bot- 

 toms, where, in .holes in snags, stumps, trees, fenceposts, etc., they 

 nest. Sometimes they make homes about our orchards, and ]\Ir. L. F. 

 Meyer tells me of a nest in Lake County, built in a house which was 

 occupied by a family having ten children. Prof. F. H. King exam- 

 ined 25 specimens; 14 had eaten 32 beetles; 1, 2 ants; 1, 2 caterpillars; 

 1, 2 grubs of a beetle; 1, a spider; 1, a chrysalid; 1, small toadstools; 

 5, acorns; 1, corn (Geol. of Wis., I., p. 486). This beneficial species 

 should be carefully protected and encouraged. Placing suitable nest- 

 ing sites about country homes will doubtless lead them to seek these 

 if they are in retired places, as the area of woodland, year after year, 

 diminishes. 



*307. (728). Sitta canadensis Linn. 



Red-breasted Nuthatch. 

 Synonym, Rkd-i5Ellied Nithatch. 



Adult Male. — Smaller than last; above, bluish-gray; crown, glossy 

 black; stripe over eye, white; black stripe through the eye; secondaries, 

 not marked with black; below, rusty or ochraceous; throat, white; tail, 

 black and white. Adult Female. — Similar, but crown and stripe 

 through the eye, dark-gray. 



Length, 4.12-4.75; wing, 2.60-2.85; tail, 1.58. 



Range. — North America, from Gulf States north to Hudson Bay 

 Territory. Breeds from Virginia (in the Alleghany Mountains), 

 Maine, northern Michigan and Manitoba, northward. Winters from 

 Minnesota and northern Michigan, southward. 



Nest, in a hole excavated in an old, well rotted snag, 4 to 35 feet up; 

 of chips, lined with finely shredded bark or fine grass. Eggs.. 3-6 ; rosy- 

 white, thickly dotted or speckled with reddish-brown, sometimes very 

 pale; markings mostly at larger end; .60 by .47. 



The Eed-breasted Nuthatch is a bird of very irregular and peculiar 

 distribution. It is usually a rather common migrant late in April and 



