BItiDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 315 



In the fall and winter these birds feed to a considerable extent on nuts, especially 

 chestnuts, acorns and beech nuts, as well as the seeds of many kinds of weeds; 

 their main food, however, consists of different species of tree-inhabiting beetles, 

 larvae, insect eggs, ants, spiders, etc., which they secure when climbing about the 

 limbs and trunks of trees. The White-breasted the most abundant of our three 

 species sometimes feeds on grains of maize which he places in a crevice of a fence 

 rail or in a suitable chink in the rough bark of a tree and with a few strokes of the 

 bill the grain is soon broken into fragments and eaten. Both the White-breasted 

 and Red-breasted Nuthatches are resident in Pennsylvania, but the Brown-headed 

 Nuthatch a southern bird if found here, occurs only as a rare and irregular strag- 

 gler about our southern borders. The white-breasted species, although found gener- 

 ally throughout the commonwealth as a rather common resident, appears to be rather 

 more numerous during winter in the lower half of the state than to the northward. 

 The Red-breasted Nuthatch breeds sparingly in our higher mountain and northern 

 districts and in winter is observed as an irregular visitor in our southern counties. 

 In southeastern Pennsylvania this last-named bird is more frequently met with in 

 October and the early part of November, than at any other period of the year. Birds 

 of this group ascend tne limbs and trunks of trees with as much ease and celerity 

 as any of the woodpeckers. In fact this woodpecker-like habit has given rise to 

 the vernacular name of "Sapsucker " by which Nuthatches as well as all the smaller 

 kinds of woodpeckers are commonly known in this region. Woodpeckers, as Dr. 

 Coues states, rarely if ever climb head downward, but Nuthatches frequently are 

 seen descending vertical limbs, etc., head downward. They usually are seen 

 singly, in pairs, or single families, but sometimes small scattered flocks of these 

 noisy, restless and unsuspicious little creepers are observed in woods. In Florida 

 where Brown-headed Nuthatches are very abundant, I have found them during the 

 winter and spring in flocks of considerable size, frequenting the tops of tall trees 

 in open pine woods. These birds, because of the vast numbers of destructive in- 

 sects they destroy, are hjghly beneficial, and merit the protection of farmers and 

 fruit-growers, some of whom, unfortunately, from a mistaken idea that they suck 

 the sap of fruit trees, destroy them when they visit the orchards. 



Nuthatches build warm nests of feathers, hair, grasses, etc., in holes in trees or 

 stumps, and lay, usually, five or six eggs, which are white and spotted with reddish- 

 brown. Bill about as long as head, awl-shaped, stout, very acute, compressed and 

 unnotched ; nostrils concealed by tufts of feathers ; wings long and pointed, prima- 

 ries ten, first very small. The nearly even tail, considerably shorter than the wings, 

 is quite broad and composed of soft rounded (at end and not rigid and acute like 

 a woodpecker's) feathers. Four toes, three in front one behind ; claws sharp and 

 curved. Bill and legs are blackish : lower mandible is generally paler at base ; 

 eyes brown. 



GENUS SITTA LINNAEUS. 

 Sitta carolinensis LATH. 



White-breasted Nuthatch ; White-bellied Nuthatch. 



DESCRIPTION (Plate 46). 



Length about 6 ; extent about 11 inches ; bill blue-black, base of lower mandible 

 paler ; legs and iris brown. 



Adult mule. Back and rump ashy-blue ; top of head and back of neck glossy 

 black ; tail (except two middle feathers, which are same color as back) black, spot- 

 ted with white ; lower parts, sides of head and neck white ; flanks and lower tail- 

 coverts rusty brown. Female and young similar though the black on head is in- 

 distinct, or sometimes absent. 



Habitat. Southern British provinces and eastern United States to the Rocky 

 mountains. 



