RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH 



11 



FIG. 



Audubon saw blown on shipboard in a gale three 

 hundred miles from shore was no exception, for 

 the instant it lit on the rigging it set to work to 

 look for food as calmly as if it had been on the 

 side of a tree trunk in the 

 woods. 



Except in the north, the 

 Red-breasted Nuthatch is not 

 often seen in the nesting 

 season, so when it appears 

 on its migrations the day is Re d-breasted Nuthatch, 

 distinguished. The bird is 

 smaller than the White-breast, and can be recog- 

 nized at a glance by the stripes on its head and 

 the reddish brown 

 of its breast. Its 

 voice also is quite 

 different from that 

 of the common Nut- 

 hatch. The Adiron- 

 dack forest is a good 

 place to see this bird. 

 One day, when rock- 

 ing in a boat under the overhanging trees of Lake 

 Placid, I was given a thrill of pleasure by the 

 sight of one of the beautiful little creatures creep- 

 ing down a branch almost to my very paddle. 



FIG. 34. 

 White-breasted Nuthatch. 



