296 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



t The nest of the Nuthatch is built in a hole in a tree, sometimes 

 a deserted woodpecker's nest, but more often, in my experience, a 

 natural crack or cavity. A family of Nuthatches, adults and several 

 young, were found near Limestone, running over the bark of a large 

 butternut tree along the roadside. An Old woodpecker hole in a 

 dead limb of this tree was probably their home. 



Black and White Warbler; Black and White Creeper. 

 Mniotilta varia (Linn.) 



The Black and White Warbler is smaller than the English Spar- 

 row. Its entire upper parts are striped in black and white. The 

 throat and sides of the male are also striped with black, but the 

 female's throat is pure white and her sides either unstriped or only 

 faintly so. 



The Black and White Creeper is found in summer mainly in the 

 forest. It is less common in the Park than most of the other 

 warblers, but is well distributed and may be met with anywhere in 

 forested areas. It lives about the larger limbs and trunks of trees, 

 creeping on the rough bark in search of insects, and managing to go 

 with head up or down, like a Nuthatch. It should not be mistaken 

 for the much larger Downy Woodpecker, the center of whose back 

 is white without stripes, and who never goes down a tree head first. 



The song of this bird is weak and high-pitched. It sounds like 

 " weesy weesy weesy " repeated eight or ten times, the second syl- 

 lable of each " weesy " being higher in pitch than the first. More 

 rarely the bird drops one or two of these notes to a lower pitch 

 toward the end of the song. The form suggests the strain of the 

 Oven-bird, and where both species are heard singing near each other 

 in the forest, the Black and White Warbler sounds like a Weak, 

 high-pitched echo of the other. 



The nest of the Black and White Warbler is placed on the ground 

 at the base of a tree or stump, and the bird often approaches it by 

 creeping down the trunk. Though the nest is on the ground, the 

 bird's environment is more that of trunks, limbs, and undergrowth 

 where it gathers most of its food, than of the forest floor, where in 

 fact it is seldom seen. 



Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Sphyrapicus varius varius (Linn.) 

 This Woodpecker, a little smaller than the Robin, is readily known 

 by the red patch on the forehead, and in the male on the throat also. 

 The Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers have red only on the back of 

 the head. The center of the back is barred with black, and the 

 wing shows a broad white patch, visible from a side view when the 

 wing is closed, and a good field mark. Young birds that have no red, 

 may be distinguished by this mark and the dark back. The pale 

 yellow under parts are not usually a good field mark, as the habits 

 of the bird make them inconspicuous. 



The Sapsucker is rare in the Park. I saw only one, in the Big 

 Basin on August I. In summer the bird will be found mainly in 

 forests, particularly those of larger trees. 



