304 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



Common resident, most abundant in winter. 



While equally a bird of the tree trunks, the Nuthatch takes exactly 

 the opposite view of life from the Brown Creeper ; hanging head down, 

 with his short stubby tail pointed up, he explores the tree from top to 

 bottom, ending where the Creeper begins. He often runs around the 

 trunk or out on horizontal limbs, and occasionally upwards, but his 

 preference is to travel upside down. 



His note, uttered now and then at intervals in his search for food, 

 is a peculiar nasal, "ank, ank, ank," sounding much farther away than 

 it really is. 



In winter we frequently find a number of insectivorous birds hunt- 

 ing together in a mixed band Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers, 

 Creepers, Chickadees and Kinglets making up the company. 



728 Sitta canadensis Linnaeus. 

 Red-breasted Nuthatch. 



Adult male. Length, 4.25-4.75. Wing, 2.75. Above, uniform bluish-gray, 

 including wings and middle pair of tail feathers ; others, black, with diagonal 

 subterminal white bars on the two outer pairs ; top of head, nape and sides of 

 head to below the eye, glossy black ; cheeks, chin and a line over the eye, pure 

 white; lower surface of body, rusty chestnut (much paler in spring). 



Adult female. Similar, but with head mainly dark gray above and lower 

 parts paler. 



Irregular transient visitant, sometimes abundant in autumn and re- 

 maining, in small numbers, throughout the winter ; very rare in other 

 years, always scarce in spring. Arrives September 10th, departs May 

 15th. In the spring of 1900, after being abundant all winter, two 

 pairs were noticed at Princeton beginning to make excavations in old 

 trees, but they did not remain to breed. 1 



Habits similar to those of the White-breasted Nuthatch. Distin- 

 guished by its small size, the black band through the eye and rusty 

 under parts. 



Note higher and thinner, not so emphatic. 



Babson, Birds of Princeton, p. 79. 



