62 Bird Comrades 



"He rests and roosts with his head downwards; and 

 appears to possess a degree of curiosity not common in 

 many birds; frequently descending, very silently, within 

 a few feet of the root of the tree where you happen to 

 stand, stopping, head downward, stretching out his neck 

 in a horizontal direction, as if to reconnoiter your appear- 

 ance, and after several minutes of silent observation, 

 wheeling around, he again mounts, with fresh activity, 

 piping his unisons as before. . . 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 dis- 

 satisfaction at being with difficulty able to make his way 

 along the smooth surface; at these times he generally 

 abandons the trees, gleans about the stables, around the 

 house, mixing among the fowls, entering the barn, and 

 examining the beams and rafters, and every place where 

 he may pick up a subsistence." 



Our charming white-breast has a little cousin called 

 the red-breasted nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) , whose under 

 parts are rufous or reddish buff instead of white. His 

 crown and nape are black, then a white band runs back 

 from the base of the upper mandible to the hind neck, 

 and below this a black stripe reaches back in a parallel 

 direction and encloses the eye. His upper parts, save 

 those mentioned, are bluish gray. He is considerably 

 smaller than the white-breast, and his range is more 

 northerly in summer; but, unlike his cousin, he does not 

 breed throughout his range; only in the localities which 



