EXPLORING THE GARDEN 



429 



quank, frequently repeated, as he moves, upward and 

 down, in spiral circles, around the body and larger 

 branches of the tree, probing behind the thin, scaly bark 

 of the white oak, and shelling off considerable pieces 

 of it, in search after spiders, ants, insects, and their 

 larvae. He rests and roosts with his head downwards, 

 and appears to possess a degree of curiosity not common 

 to many birds; frequently descendjing, very silently, 

 wnthin a few feet of the root of the tree where you 

 happen to stand, stopping, head downward, stretching 

 out his neck in a horizontal position, as if to reconnoitre 

 vcur appearance ; and, after several minutes of silent 

 observation, wheeling round, he ag-ain mounts, with 

 frcoh activity, piping his unisons as before. Strongly 



The cut of the White-breasted Nuthatch illustrating 

 the present article is of one I had alive for a time, which 

 I captured near my home in Washington. I made several 

 photographs of it, it being a male, and the best of 

 these is here shown. The female of this species is not as 

 brightly colored as the male, the black being rather 

 dingy, especially on the crown of the head and often 

 elsewhere in the plumage. We have a number of in- 

 teresting nuthatches in our United States avifauna, and 

 some of these will receive my attention in future issues 

 of American Forestry. 



One may often study in a garden, in the early spring, 

 the budding of various trees, and this study is a most 

 interesting as well as important one. Our space here 



BLUE AND CROWFOOT VIOLETS IN BLOOM 

 Fig. 12 All of our American violets, under proper conditions, thrive well when transplanted into our gardens. 



attached to his native forests, he seldom forsakes them ; 

 and, amidst the rigors of the severest winter weather, 

 his note is still heard in the bleak and leafless woods, 

 and among the howling branches. Sometimes the rain, 

 freezing as it falls, encloses every twig, and even the 

 trunk of the tree, in a hard, transparent coat or shell of 

 ice. On these occasions I have observed his anxiety 

 and dissatisfaction at being, with difficulty, able to make 

 his way along the smooth surface; at these times gen- 

 erally abandoning the trees, gleaning about the stables, 

 around the house, mixing with the fowls, entering the 

 bam, and examining the beams and rafters, and every 

 place where he may pick up a subsistence." 



will admit of giving but a few examples of the trees, 

 and I have selected, as illustrations, three very beautiful 

 ones, which are shown in Figures 5, 6 and 8 the first 

 two showing the opening buds of the hickories, and the 

 third is the ash-leaved maple, also known as the box 

 elder. These tell their own stories; and, as I have 

 frequently pointed out, foresters and other students of 

 trees can make no better use of their cameras than to 

 secure a full collection of such studies, arranging the 

 photographs with full and accurate notes in an album 

 suitable for their permanent preservation. 



Hornets, bees and wasps are constant visitors to 

 gardens in the country, and sometimes to those found in 



