THE WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH 



271 



sorbed in his work that he forgets all about himself, and 

 works half the time head downward, or oblique, or horizontal, 

 as it may happen to be. Rarely does he stop to talk, and 

 even then he only clucks in his throat, "not necessarily for 

 publication, but as a guarantee of good faith." 



WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 



Often in the silent and snowy woods, when your feet go 

 rip! rip! rip! through the frozen crust, you hear close 

 overhead a scratching, digging sound, as of some one gouging 

 into rough bark with a pocket-knife. Look up, and it will 

 be a Nuthatch, working away as if his job depended upon 

 the doing of a daily stint. He thinks that in his case it is the 

 late bird that catches the worm! His beak is like that of a 



