BED-BELLIED NUTHATCff. 225 



The nett of the Nuthatch is a hole in a tree generally excavated by 

 the bird to the depth of a foot or more, sometimes a natural cavity. 

 It is lined abundantly with down, hair and feathers. Mr. H. C. Benson, 

 of Gambier, informs me that he has known them to build in a crevice in the 

 wall of a stone building. The eggs are from four to six, white, with a 

 roseate tinge when fresh, thickly covered with spots and blotches of rusty 

 brown and purplish. The young lack the black on the head. 



SiTTA CANADENSIS L. 



Ii,ecl-bellied K'uthatcii. 



Silta canadensis, Kirtland, Ohio Gfolog. Surv., 183ci, 164. — Read, Proo. Pbilad. A carl. 

 Nat. Sci., 1853, 395.— Whkaton, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 365 ; Reprint, 1861, 7 ; Food 

 of Birtls, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 56'2; Reprint, 1875, 2. — Lanodon, Cat. Birdaof 

 Gin., 1877, 4 ; ReviiseJ List, Journ. Ciii. Boc. Nat Hist., i, 187'J, 170 ; Reprint, 4. 



Sittct canadensis, LlNNiELS, Syst, Nal., i, 170G, 177. 



Above dark ashy blue, tail iis in caroKnensis. Below rusty hrown. Wings plain. 

 Crown and nafm glossy black, bordered by a white superudiary line. A black line from bill 

 through and widening beyond I he c e. 



Habitat, wooded p^irtions of Temperate North America. 



Rather common but irregular spring and fall "migrant. Winter visitor 

 in South-western Ohio. The Red-bellied Nuthatch arrives in this vicin- 

 ity from the south about the middle of April, and may be found until 

 the middle of May. Usually single birds aie seen which accompany the 

 Titmice, Creepers, and Blue birds. On one occasion, spring of 1874, I 

 found them in large flocks in company with equally large flocks of Red- 

 starts. While their habits .ire essentially the same as those of the White- 

 bellied Nuthatch, they are more often seen on the smaller branches and 

 twigs of trees than is the case with the latter. 



Mr. Brewster describes (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, iji, 1878, 20) the breed- 

 ing plumage of this bird as differing from that heretofore given, and as 

 having the ' entire under parts dirty white, tinged very slightly with pale 

 rusty on the breast, sides, abdomen, and crissurn." In the spring ot 1874, 

 I took a couple of these birds answering this desciiption, but unfortu- 

 nately having secured several others at the same time, in what I thought 

 to be in higher plumage, they were not preserved. 



Until lately little has been known of their breeding habits. The nest 

 is excavated in the stub of a tree and is about eight inches in depth, 

 with much the appearance of the nest of the Downy Woodpecker. 

 The entrance to the nest is said to be frequently coated with the balsam 

 of the fir. The hole is plentifully supplied with down and feathers. The 

 red feathers from the breast of the bird are said to be especially noticeable. 



15 



