36 SITTA CAROLINENS1S. 



DESCRIPTION OF NEST AND EGGS. 



The following is a description of a nest and eggs taken by Mr. Brewster at Cambridge. 



Nest built in the hole of a tree, and composed of fine grasses lined with hair or feathers. It is shallow; being 

 about one inch in depth and four in diameter. 



Eggs usually six in number; creamy-white in color, spotted and blotched irregularly with pale reddish-brown and 

 lilac. In the specimens before me, which were kindly loaned me by Mr Brewster, the spots form a ring around the 

 larger eud. Dimensions, from -70x-57 to -83 x-60. 



HABITS. 



If there were ever harlequins among birds, they are the White-hellied Nuthatches ; for while 

 they are on the trees, searching for insects, they are constantly assuming all the positions 

 imaginable. They will climb quickly up the trunk, after the manner of the Woodpeckers, 

 peering right and left, then will suddenly commence a retrograde movement, which is checked 

 abruptly as the birds seize upon some beetle, when, without an instant's pause, they will reverse 

 themselves and back upwards, proceeding as agilely as if moving head foremost. In a few 

 seconds they will stop, raise their heads, glance about while sounding their harsh notes, then 

 launch into air, alighting upon the lower side of a limb, and will glide along it as nimbly as if 

 upon the upper part. Thus they are ever in motion, and always changing their attitudes in an 

 easy and graceful manner, but do not have the quick nervous movements of the Brown-headed 

 and Red-bellied Nuthatches, but perform their evolutions more steadily. 



These birds may be found in the orchard as well as in the woods but, although by no means 

 rare, it is not usual to meet with -many in a single day. They appear to live in pairs, apart 

 from their fellows, associating with the Warblers or Titmice ; and I can recall but few instances 

 where I have found more than two in one locality at the same time. Then the birds seemed to 

 have met by accident and probably would not have remained together for any length of time. 



The White-bellied Nuthatches, like the preceding species, are great wanderers during winter, 

 but remain in one locality when the breeding season approaches. I think their eggs are laid by 

 the last of April for I have seen fully fledged young by June 1st. The nest from which they 

 came was built in the hole of an old stub, and was situated about twenty feet above the ground. 

 This tree had evidently been used as a nesting place for some time, for there were several other 

 openings which had, in all probability, been occupied in previous years. The female is very 

 unsuspicious while incubating, or her aflections for her eggs overcome her fears, for she will 

 permit herself to be handled at such times without attempting to escape. Mr. Brewster having 

 discovered a nest in a partly decayed apple tree, enlarged the entrance, that he might introduce 

 his hand, and remove the bird. She struggled vigorously to escape but, as soon as she 

 was liberated, returned to her eggs. She was taken out several times but invariably entered her 

 domicile the moment she regained her freedom. Even when thrown into the air she did not fly 

 away, and when Mr. Brewster went away she was on the nest. This species usually construct 

 their edifice in dead trees or stubs, but my friend, Mr. Harold Herrick, of New York, informed 

 me that he knew of a pair which built their nest in the walls of an inhabited dwelling, having 

 found an entrance through a knot hole in a clapboard, which was situated beneath the eaves. 

 The White-bellied Nuthatches are constant residents in New England, but only winter visitors 

 to Florida. Those which go south migrate quite early in the season, generally during the latter 

 part of October. On the 30th of this month I was on a steamer bound for Savannah, and when 

 fifty miles off the coast of Virginia we were visited by a male of this species. He alighted on 

 the deck at first apparently exhausted but, after I'esting a short time, recovered, when he 

 commenced climbing about the rigging and running up and down the masts in search of food 

 performing his gymnastic feats with as much agility as in his native woods ; he remained on 

 board until night but I could not find him the next morning. Their food consists principally 

 of insects but they will sometimes eat acorns. 



