THE NUTHATCH FAMILY* 



BIRDS OF THE INVERTED POSITION 



THERE are a number of climbers in the bird realm, 

 but none are quite so expert as the nuthatch, 

 which may be regarded as a past-master in the 

 art of clambering. The woodpeckers amble up the boles 

 and branches of trees, and when they wish to descend, 

 as they do occasionally for a short distance, they hitch 

 down backward. The brown creepers ascend their 

 vertical or oblique walls in the same way, but seldom, if 

 ever> do anything else than clamber upward, never 

 descending head downward after the fashion of the 

 nuthatches. 



A little bird that comes very near disputing the palm 

 with the nuthatch as a sylvan coaster is the creeping 

 warbler, which flits about over the tree boles in all kinds 

 of attitudes, even with his dainty head pointed toward 

 the earth. No fear in his little striped breast of the blood 

 rushing to his brain. However, even this clever birdlet's 

 dexterity is not equal to that of the nuthatch, for the latter 

 is able to climb up and down a smoother wall than his 



*This chapter is reprinted from that excellent bird magazine called "American Ornithol- 

 ogy," published by Charles K. Reed, Worcester, Mass., and edited by his son, Chester A. Reed. 

 The author is under obligation to these gentlemen for their courtesy in permitting him to 

 reprint the article. 



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