NUTHATCHES AND TITS. 387 



R Throat not black. 



o. Under parts more or less washed with rufous ; a black or gray streak 

 through the eye 728. KED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 



b. Under parts white or whitish ; under tail-coverts more or less rufous ; tail 

 with white spots. 



727. WHITE-BKEASTED NUTHATCH. 7276. FLORIDA NUTHATCH. 



c. Under parts white or whitish ; flanks with rufous ; no white in the tail ; 

 head crested 731. TUFTED TITMOUSE. 



d. Whole top of the head brown .... 729. BROWN- HEADED NUTHATCH. 







727. Sitta carolinensis Lath. WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. Ad. 

 $ . Top of the head and front part of the back shining black ; rest of the 

 upper parts bluish gray ; inner secondaries bluish gray, marked with black ; 

 wing-coverts and quills tipped with whitish ; outer tail-feathers black, with 

 white patches near their tips ; middle ones bluish gray ; sides of the head and 

 under parts white; lower belly and under tail-coverts mixed with rufous. 

 Ad. 9 . Similar, but the black of the head and back veiled by bluish gray. 

 L., 6-07 ; W., 3-48 ; T., 1-92 ; B., -76. 



Range. Eastern North America; breeds from the Gulf States to Minne- 

 sota and New Brunswick ; generally resident throughout its range. 



Washington, common T. V. and W. V., less common S. E. Sing Sing, 

 common P. K. Cambridge, P. E.. rare in summer, uncommon in winter, com- 

 mon in migrations ; most numerous in Oct. and Nov. 



Nest, of feathers, leaves, etc., in a hole in a tree or stump. Eggs, five to 

 eight, white or creamy white, thickly and rather evenly spotted and speckled 

 with rufous and lavender, '75 x -57. 



When the cares of a family devolve upon him, the Nuthatch 

 eschews all society and rarely ventures far from his forest home. But 

 in the winter I believe even the birds are affected by the oppressive 

 loneliness ; the strangers of summer become for a time boon compan- 

 ions, and we find Downy Woodpeckers, Chickadees, and Nuthatches 

 wandering about the woods or visiting the orchards on apparently the 

 best of terms. 



Few birds are easier to identify: the Woodpecker pecks, the 

 Chickadee calls ''chickadee" while the Nuthatch, running up and 

 down the tree trunks, assumes attitudes no bird outside his family 

 would think of attempting. His powers of speech are in no wise 

 disturbed by his often inverted position, and he accompanies his 

 erratic clamberings by a conversational twitter or occasionally a loud, 

 nasal yank, yank, which frequently tells us of his presence before we 

 see him. 



He is not too absorbed in his business to have a mild interest in 

 yours, and he may pause a moment to look you over in a calm kind of 

 way, which somehow makes one feel that perhaps, after all, Nuthatches 

 are of as much importance as we. But his curiosity is soon satisfied ; 

 affairs are evidently pressing, and with a yank, yank, he resumes his 



