AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 47 



beak or strew his brains on the bark. Sometimes, too, he thrusts his 

 long slender beak into a crevice and pries with it in a way that threat- 

 ens to snap it off in the middle. 



The writer has elsewhere described the Nuthatch's manner of cling- 

 ing to his vertical perches as he makes his descent, but it will do no 

 harm to describe the interesting process again, especially in a mono- 

 graph on the Nuthatch fraternity. Our bird does not, as many have 

 supposed, keep his feet directly under his bosom and pointed forward. 

 That would be an extremely awkard method of locomotion. It would 

 cause his heavy breast to tilt forward and go bumping along over the 

 rough bark. No, nature does not do her work in so clumsy a fashion. 

 Besides, you cannot imagine how a Nuthatch could move out of his 

 tracks without losing his hold, with both feet directly under him and 

 his tail pointed toward the sky, he could neither put one foot before 

 the other, or loosen the grasp of both feet at once. 



So he must perform his little exploit in some other way. This is the 

 process: One foot is thrust forward and slightly to one side, the sharp 

 hind claw penetrating the bark and holding firmly; the other foot is flung 

 backward and somewhat to the opposite side, and is turned with the 

 fore toes outward, the claws gripping the bark with a strong clutch. 

 Thus, with his feet spread so far apart, the little gymnast makes a wide 

 base beneath him outside of which the center of gravity can never fall. 

 He therefore stands solidly balanced on his upright wall. At the same 

 time he is able to cling firmly, and yet loosen and tighten his hold as 

 he lists, moving downward in his smooth and agile way in little leaps 

 or hitches. Again and again I have seen him performing his feat in 

 this way as he descended a tree-trunk or the vertical side of a brick 

 wall. Mr. Frank M. Chapman writes me that his own observations- 

 corroborate the foregoing conclusions. Yet thus far no bird artist has 

 drawn the Nuthatch making his descent in the manner described. 



All the foregoing delineations have related only to the white-breasted 

 Nuthatch {Sitta carolinensis,) but it is fair to presume that all the other 

 members of this sub-family make their descent in the same fashion. 

 The Woodpeckers and creepers use their spiny tails as supports while 

 stationary or in motion; not so the Nuthatches, which are sufficiently 

 nimble on their feet to stand or glide without converting their caudal 

 appendages into braces. Odd as it may seem to the uninformed, the 

 Nuthatches belong to the order of passeres or perching birds, in spite 

 of their creeping habits. The systematists have placed them in this 

 niche of the avicular scheme, not only because they are able to perch 

 like other passeres on twigs and small branches, but also because they 

 have the foot of the true perching bird, with three toes in front and one,, 



