WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH 



Top of the head and hind neck black; the other parts 

 above bluish-gray; wings bluish-gray marked with black and 

 tipped with white ; outer tail-feathers black marked with white 

 near the end ; remaining tail-feathers bluish-gray ; under parts 

 and sides of the head white; belly tinged with red; bill long 

 and sharp; body broad across the wings. Female similar to 

 the male. Length, five and three-fourths inches. 



Nest, in the woods, located in a cavity pecked out of a dead 

 tree by the birds, and composed of leaves, feathers, grass and 

 hair. Eggs,^ four to eight, white, spotted with reddish-brown 

 and lilac, .75 x .55 inches. 



This Nuthatch is resident with us all the year. In the 

 summer time and especially during the nesting period it stays 

 in the woods with its own kind, but in winter when sleety 

 storms have covered the tree trunks with a coating of ice, it 

 may come into the orchards and gardeils in search of food. 

 Being strictly insectivorous, it never eats anything but grubs, 

 insects and their eggs which it gleans ftom the bark of trees. 

 With great painstaking it explores the trunks of trees, going 

 up and down them in a zigzag course while clinging firmly to 

 the bark. 



Often in winter Nuthatches are found in company with 

 Chickadees and Downy Woodpeckers roaming through the 

 woods in search of food. Perhaps these birds feel the loneliness 

 of the season due to the absence of most other birds and, like 

 people, they come together for companionship. At any rate, 

 they chatter away in bird language much after the manner of 

 people at an evening party. Doubtless, birds are able to under- 



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