744 



The Sparrow-like Birds 



of the head and rufous under parts, is the Red-breasted Nuthatch (S. cana- 

 densis), which ranges over the whole of North America, but breeds mainly north 

 of the United States; it is rather partial to pine forests, but its habits are other- 

 wise similar. In the South Atlantic and Gulf States occurs the Brown-headed 

 Nuthatch (S. pusilla), which is known by its brown cap and diminutive size, 

 while equally small and in many respects the most engaging of all is the 

 Pygmy Nuthatch (S. pygmaa) of the western United States. It is the most 

 sociable and gregarious of all the American species, going about except at the 

 nesting season in flocks of from a dozen or twenty to often as many as fifty or 

 a hundred, " straggling from tree to tree with desultory flight, calling incessantly 

 to each other as if to make sure that all the company keep together." Their 



food consists of minute insects which lurk 

 in the crevices in the bark, as well as the 

 seeds of conifers. 



One of the best-known of the Old World 

 species is the Common Nuthatch (S. casia} 

 of central and western Europe, and the only 

 one reaching the British Islands. About five 

 and a half inches in length, it has a black 

 stripe through the eye, separating the bluish 

 gray of the upper part of the head from the 

 white cheeks and throat, the under parts 

 being plain buff. It is one of the favorite 

 birds of the English people, its high-pitched, 

 clear, ringing note being frequently in evi- 

 dence, especially in spring. For a nesting 

 site it selects a hole in the trunk or branch of a large tree, and if the entrance 

 be too large it is walled up with clay; the eggs number from five to seven. 

 As most of the remaining species show but minor differences in both plumage 

 and habits, we may pass to a consideration of the Rock Nuthatch (S. neumayeri), 

 which is not conspicuously different from the Northern Nuthatch (S. europaa) 

 in plumage, but differs widely in habits. A native of Dalmatia and Greece, 

 whence it ranges through Asia Minor to northern Persia, it shuns the forested 

 region and makes its home amongst rocks, over which it runs with the same 

 facility as do the tree-haunting forms on tree-trunks. For a nesting site it 

 selects a slight hollow or recess on the face of a cliff usually facing the sun, 

 in front of which it constructs a covering of mud and carries it out in the form 

 of a cone for a distance of several inches. The nest, Mr. Tracy says, "is 

 naturally as inconspicuous as the ashy colored Nuthatch on his gray limestone 

 hunting ground, but he sometimes boldly adorns it with trophies of the chase 

 in the shape of bright wings of moths attached while the plaster is fresh." 

 Within, the nest is lined with the hair of various animals, the down of plants, 

 etc., and contains from six to ten eggs. 



Distinguished from the typical Nuthatches mainly on the ground that the 

 back and mantle are blue instead of slate-gray is the Old World genus Den- 



FIG. 208. European Nuthatch, Sitta 

 casia. 



