Jan., 1909. Birds of Illinois and Wisconsin — Cory. 



695 



Adult male: Top of head and upper back, glossy black; rest of 

 upper parts, bluish gray; sides of head and under parts, white, more 



White-breasted Nuthatch. 



or less marked on flanks and crissum with rusty brown; wings, black- 

 ish, the inner feathers edged with gray; middle tail feathers, gray; 

 outer feathers with broad subterminal band of white, the tips, black. 



Adult female: Similar, but black of head tinged with bluish 

 gray. 



Length, 5.80; wing, 3.50; tail, 1.90; bill, .70. 



A not uncommon resident in Illinois and Wisconsin and abundant 

 in spring and fall during the migrations. The note of the White- 

 breasted Nuthatch is a strange quenk, quenk, difficult to describe, 

 but which once heard will not easily be forgotten. 



The nest is in a hole in a dead stump or tree. The eggs are from 

 6 to 8, pure white or creamy white, speckled with rufous brown, and 

 measure about .73 x .56 inches. Mr. H. S. Swarth procured a set of 

 six eggs at Joliet, 111., May 21, 1907. 



350. Sitta canadensis (Linn.). 

 Red-breasted Nuthatch. 



Distr. : Nearly the whole of North America ; breeding from north- 

 ern Indiana, northern Illinois, California, and the mountainous 

 regions of North Carolina and Colorado northward to Labrador, 

 Keewatin, and southern Alaska; winters in the United States. 



Adult m.ale: Top of head, black; a black stripe through the eye, 

 extending to sides of neck: a white stripe over the eye; rest of upper 



