The White-Breasted Nuthatch 273 



the tree trunk, as if he had changed his mind so suddenly 

 about alighting that it unbalanced him." It is said that they 

 sleep clinging to a tree with their heads in this position. 

 July 8, 1904, I saw one clinging to the underneath side of a 

 horizontal limb with his back to the ground. Truly he may 

 be called the "upside down bird." How beautifully Edith M. 

 Thomas describes him in her poem, "To a Nuthatch," when 

 she says : 



"Shrewd little hunter of woods all gray, 

 Whom I meet on my walk of a winter day, 

 You're busy inspecting each cranny and hole 

 In the ragged bark of yon hickory bole; 

 You intent on your task, and I on the law 

 Of your wonderful head and gymnastic claw 



"The woodpecker well may despair his feat 

 Only the fly with you can compete! 

 So much is clear; but I fain would know 

 How you can so reckless and fearless go, 

 Head upward, head downward, all one to you, 

 Zenith and nadir, the same to your view." 



The nuthatches are beneficial birds and should be protected. 

 Professor King examined twenty-five specimens and found 

 that fourteen had eaten beetles, while others had eaten ants, 

 caterpillars, grubs, spiders and a crysalis, a few toadstools 

 and acorns, and a small quantity of corn. They destroy im- 

 mense numbers of the eggs of injurious insects which have 

 been deposited in the crevices and under the bark of trees. 

 There are times when the trees are incased in ice, and the birds 

 which obtain their food in this way can not get it. At such 

 times they are driven by necessity into our gardens and lawns 

 in search of food. We should then come to their rescue, and 

 firmly fasten pieces of suet and other scraps of meat to the 

 limbs of the trees. By so doing we will do them and ourselves 

 a service, and we will have the companionship of these inter- 

 esting little friends of ours. Professor Sanderson, who made 

 a special study of them during the winter, says that the larger 

 proportion of their food was composed of seeds, which grad- 

 ually decreased as the insect life became more abundant. In the 

 spring nearly eighty per cent, of their food consisted of in- 

 sects, chiefly adults. 



