THE BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH. 



{Sitta pusilla.) 



Come, busy nuthatch, with your awl, 



But never mind your notes, 

 Unless you've dropped your nasal chords 



And tuned your husky throats. 



— Ella Gilbert Ives, "Robin's Thanksgiving Proclamation." 



Of the twenty species of nuthatches 

 known to inhabit the temperate regions 

 of the Northern hemisphere, but four 

 are distinctively American. They are 

 classed by ornithologists with the tits and 

 chickadees in the family Paridae, a word 

 derived from the Latin parus, meanmg 

 a titmouse. The nuthatches, like the 

 woodpeckers, are climbers, but unlike the 

 latter they climb downward as well as 

 upward and with equal facility. Their 

 tails are very short and are not used for 

 support. Their bodies also do not touch 

 the tree "unless they are suddenly 

 afifrighted, when' they crouch and look, 

 with their beaks extended, much like a 

 knot with a broken twig to it." A sud- 

 den clapping of the hands or a sharply 

 spoken word will often cause a nuthatch 

 to assume this attitude. They are busy 

 birds, yet they are seldom too absorbed 

 in their work of gathering food to stop 

 and closely scrutinize an intruder. "Few 

 birds are easier to identify: the wood- 

 pecker pecks, the chickadee calls 'chicka- 

 dee,' while the nuthatch, running up and 

 down the tree trunks, assuines attitudes 

 no bird outside of his family would think 

 of attempting." 



They do not always seek their food in 

 the crevices of the bark of trees but, 

 flycatcher-like, will fly outward from 

 their perch and catch insects on the wing. 

 Mr. James Newton Baskett relates the 

 follovvinii: interesting observation : "One 

 spring day some little gnats were en- 

 gaged in their little crazy love waltzes in 

 the air, forming little whirling clouds, 

 and the birds left off bark-probing and 

 began caplnriiig insects on the wing. 

 They were awkward al)out it with their 

 short wings and had to alight frc(|mMi(ly 

 to rest. 1 wen! on! to tlu^n and so a1)- 



sorbed were they that they allowed me 

 to approach within a yard of a limb that 

 they came to rest upon, where they would 

 sit and oant till they caught their breath, 

 when they went at it again. They seemed 

 to revel in a new diet and a new exer- 

 cise." 



The Brown-headed Nuthatch is abun- 

 dant from Louisiana and Florida to the 

 southern part of Maryland. It also 

 strays, at times, farther north, for it 

 has been taken in Illinois, Michigan and 

 Ohio. In the pine woods of the Southern 

 States it passes a happy existence, always 

 chattering in bird language even when 

 its head is downward. "Each one chat- 

 ters away without paying the slightest 

 attention to what his companions are 

 saying." Mr. Chapman says: "There is 

 such a lack of sentiment in the nuthatch's 

 character, he seems so matter-of-fact in 

 all his ways, that it is difficult to imagine 

 hitn indulging in anything like a song." 

 Though these words have reference to 

 another species, they apply equally well 

 to the Brown-headed form, whose only 

 note seems to be a monotonous and oft- 

 repeated utterance of a single syllable. 



For its nest it selects a suitable hole 

 in the trunk of a tree, or in a stump, that 

 is usually not far from the ground. This 

 it lines with grasses, fine, soft fibers and 

 feathers. Here are laid about six creamy 

 white eggs that are spotted with a brown- 

 ish color. The parents are attentive to 

 their young and seldom associate with 

 others of their kind till these family cares 

 are finislicd. Then they become more 

 sociable and are found in companionship 

 not onlv with other Brown-heads but also 

 with woodjieckers, warblers and chicka- 

 dees. 



