AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 5 5 



times the rain, freezing as it falls, encloses every twig, and even the 

 trunk of the tree, in a hard, transparent coat or shell of ice. On these 

 occasions I have observed his anxiety and dissatisfaction at being with 

 dii^culty able to make his way along the smooth surface; at these 

 times generally abandoning the trees, gleaning about the stables, 

 around the house, mixing among the fowls, entering the barn, and ex- 

 amining the beams and rafters, and every place where he may pick up 

 a subsistence. 



"The name Nuthatch has been bestowed on this family from their 

 supposed practice of breaking nuts by repeated hatchings, or hammer- 

 ings, with their bills. Soft-shelled nuts, such as chestnuts, chinkapins, 

 and hazelnuts, they may probably be able to demolish, though I have 

 never seen them so engaged; but it must rather be in search of mag- 

 gots that sometimes breed there than for the kernel." 



It is a mistake, however, to suppose that the white-breast is not fond 

 of the kernels of nuts, for my winter visitor previously referred to was 

 extremely partial to the "goodies" of the cracked walnuts and hickory 

 nuts with which I supplied his table. He would sometimes eat them 

 from the board itself; at other times he would fly to a wall or a tree, 

 wedge his morsel in a cleft or pocket, hammer it into small bits, and 

 devour it with great relish, so that I could imagine him smacking his 

 lips. 



Our charming white-breast has a little cousin called the red-breasted 

 nuthatch {Siita canadensis J whose under parts are rufous or reddish- 

 buiT instead of white. His crown and nape are black, then a white 

 band runs back from the base of the upper mandible to the hind neck, 

 and below this a black stripe reaches back in a parallel direction and 

 encloses the eye. His upper parts, save those mentioned, are bluish- 

 gray. He is considerably smaller than the white-breast, and his range 

 is more northerly in summer; but, unlike his cousin, he does not breed 

 throughout his range; only in the localities which he selects for his 

 summer home. Hence he is a migrant, dwelling in winter in the 

 vSouthern states, and in summer in the latitude of Manitoba and Maine 

 and northward, and also on the summits of the mountains as far south 

 as Virginia. It will be seen that the breeding precincts of the two 

 species overlap, while in winter canadensis comes down from the north 

 and takes up his abode in the southern part of the demesne of 

 carol inensis. 



While the white-breast is partial to oak, beech, maple and other de- 

 ciduous forests, his little relative prefers a woodland of pine, being- 

 very fond of scampering about on the cones, clinging to them with 

 his strong claws, and extracting the seeds with his stout little bilL 



