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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



THE WHITE-FACED HORNET 



Fig. 10 A handsome, black and white insect and one of the 

 most conspicuous representatives of its genus, which is capable 

 of giving a sting of great severity. 



nuthatch, or a nuthatch, was in the habit of cracking the 

 various kinds of nuts it came across, in search for the 

 maggots or other worms that might be found in them ; 

 further, the bird gathered quantities of worm-eaten nuts 

 for a winter's supply, hiding the same in hollows of trees. 

 All this is not entirely true, as no nuthatch that ever 

 lived could crack a hickory nut or an American walnut. 

 On the contrary, these birds feed largely on various 

 species of small bugs, larvae, ants and seeds ; they search 

 for such food incessantly during the day, thus render- 

 ing signal service to our forest trees and timber. A 

 writer at hand says of this favorite little bird that it 

 "gets its living from the trunks and branches of trees, 

 over which it creeps from daylight to dark. Insects 

 and spiders constitute a little more than 50 per cent of 

 its food. The largest item of these are beetles, moths 

 and caterpillars, with ants and wasps. The animal food 

 is all in the bird's favor except a few ladybird beetles. 

 More than half of the vegetable food consists of mast 

 acorns and nuts and large seeds. One-tenth of the food 



is grain, mostly waste com. The Nuthatch does no 

 known injury but much good." 



Personally I have studied and collected the White- 

 breasted Nuthatch from Long Island Sound, and south- 

 ward through the Middle States, and I am free to con- 

 fess that I have yet to see one of them having anything to 

 do with what in any way resembled a nut. Wilson, who 

 was a close observer of the species when it was far more 

 abundant than it is now, tells us that "it is, however, said, 

 that they lay up a large store of nuts for winter, but, as 

 I have never either found any of their magazines, or seen 

 them collecting them, I am inclined to doubt the fact. 

 From the great numbers I have opened at all seasons 

 of the year, I have every reason to believe that ants, 

 bugs, small seeds, insects and their larvae, form their 

 chief subsistence, such matters alone being uniformly 

 found in their stomachs. Neither can I see what neces- 

 sity they could have to circumambulate the trunks of 

 trees with such indefatigable and restless diligence, 

 while bushels of nuts lay scattered round their roots." 



Apart from its great abundance, Wilson's observations 

 on the habits of the White-breasted Nuthatch are fully 

 in agreement with my own. He says it "is common 

 almost everywhere in the woods of North America, 

 and may be known, at a distance, by its notes, quank, 



KINGBIRD, OR TYRANT FLYCATCHER 



Fig. II A brave little species which in defense of its nest and 

 young, does not hesitate to attack any eagle or hawk that tiies 

 within its neighborhood. 



