188 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



the moss and dead pieces of trees with their sharp, powerful 

 bill. 



In traversing the limbs of trees, they resemble in their 

 movements the Downy Woodpecker ; and their flight is also 

 similar to that bird's. The note is a short, harsh call, simi- 

 lar to the syllables cha-cha-cha-chd, uttered quickly, and with 

 emphasis. 



SITTA CANADENSIS.— it7m(E?«. 

 The Eed-bellied Nuthatch. 



Silta Canadensis, Linn^us. Syst. Nat., L (1766) 177. Nutt. Man., I. (1832) 583. 

 Aud. Om. Biog., IL (1834) 24; V. 474. 



SiUa varia, Wilson. Am. Orn., L (1808) 40. 



Description. 



Above ashy-blue; top of head black; a white line above and a black one through 

 the eye ; chin white ; rest of under parts brownish-rusty. 



Length, about four and a half inches; wing, two and two-thirds inches. 

 Ilab. — North America to the Rocky Mountains, probably also to the Pacific. 



The same remarks as to distribution, habits, &c., will 

 apply to this species as to the preceding. It is quite abun- 

 dant as a summer resident in the wilds of Maine; and its 

 notes are almost the first sound heard by the traveller on 

 awakening in the early morning. I have sometimes heard 

 its note in the night, while floating in my canoe on the 

 bosom of some tranquil lake or between the banks of a 

 sombre river ; and frequently they seemed to be high up 

 in the air, as if the bird had taken flight. These notes 

 are a sort of drawling repetition of the syllable chape, like 

 perhaps the following : Cheadpe, cheadpe, cheadpe. 



The nest is built in a hole in a tree or stump, usually 

 excavated by the birds for the purpose : it is of the same 

 description as that of the preceding, as are also the eggs 

 with the exception of size ; the present being considerably 

 smaller, averaging .64 by .53 inch. 



Audubon, in describing the nest of the Red-bellied Nut- 

 hatch, says, — 



