20 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 9-1 



shelf to a second-story window-sill, and, ever since, Mrs. Ty- 

 ler and I have kept it supplied with food, — suet and meat in 

 winter, nuts in summer. Excepting the interval between June 

 6th and 16th, 1914, the male Nuthatch has come to the shelf 

 practically every day for over a year. At the first trial he fed 

 from our hands ; he allows us to gaze at him from a distance 

 of a foot or tw^o ; he seems as much at home on the food-shelf 

 as on his native bark; he appears to consider the shelf as his 

 own and he allows no other bird to use it in his presence. 



Our male Ntithatch is a bird of decided character. He al- 

 ways impresses us with his independence and self-reliance. 

 Although he feeds from our hands readily, he has apparently 

 not the slightest confidence in us, — he comes near us solely 

 because his appetite is stronger than his distrust. Unlike the 

 Chickadees, he spent the whole winter alone ; unlike the Jun- 

 cos, he will not allow another bird to feed near him. He drives 

 off Chickadees, Juncos, a Downy Woodpecker and a female 

 Nuthatch. He will not allow the House Sparrows on the 

 shelf; — indeed when they come near, he stands guard upon 

 the shelf until they leave the vicinity. However, he never 

 attacks a Hairy Woodpecker. 



The Nuthatch comes to the shelf several times a day. He 

 arrives at full speed apparently and alights clinging upright 

 to the edge, then, resting on his toe-nails, hops to the food 

 and attacks the nuts. All his motions are rapid, — so rapid 

 that they appear jerky — but with all their quickness there is 

 the certainty and precision of an expert. At each lightning- 

 like dart of his beak a morsel of nut is picked up and swal- 

 lowed. The smallest bits disappear as if by magic, the me- 

 dium-sized pieces are swallowed more slowly, — one of small- 

 pea-size, for instance, is fitted carefully into the throat before 

 being allowed to slip down; larger pieces are generally car- 

 ried to the corner of the shelf (as to a crevice of bark) and 

 there broken apart. He strikes a vertical blow with his closed 

 bill. The nut, as a rule, flies apart in two pieces, but if his 

 bill has not pierced the nut, the bird appears to perceive it 

 at once, and before withdrawing his bill, turns his head side- 



