RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 127 
NAMES: WuitE-BreasTeD NurHatcu, Carolina Nuthatch, White-bellied Nuthatch.—Spechtmeise. (Germ.) 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: SITTA CAROLINENSIS Latu. (1790). Sitta melanocephala Vieill. (1834). Sitta 
aculeata Cass. (1856). S. carolinensis aculeata Allen (1872). 
DESCRIPTION: “Above, ashy-blue. Top of head and neck black. Underparts and sides of head, to a short 
distance above the eye, white. Under tail-coverts and tibial feathers brown; concealed primaries white. 
Bill, stout. Female, with black of head glossed with ashy. 
“Length about 6 inches; wing, 3.75; tail, 2 inches.” (B. B. & R.) 
RED-BREASTED NuTHATCH. 
Sitta canadensis LINN. 
AlSHE TRUE home of the pretty RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH is north of the United 
q a States, although a number may breed in our northernmost states. It is also found 
during the breeding season in the high elevations among the mountains of the West, 
and probably also of the East, where the altitude is equivalent to a high latitude. 
Unlike the White-breasted Nuthatch, it migrates to a considerable extent in spring and 
fall, frequently visiting the Middle, and even the Gulf States in winter. I have seen it 
every spring and fall in Lawrence Co., Mo., and also in Wisconsin and IIinois, but 
have not found it in Texas. 
A good account of the birds’ nidification in Maine has been given by Mr. Manly 
Hardy in the “Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club” (III, 1878, p. 176). June 2, 
he found a nest on Little Deer Isle, Penobscot Bay. It was in a white-birch stub, some 
ten feet from the ground; the entrance was 1.50 inches wide. The hole ran slanting 
for three inches, and then straight down for four inches more. It contained six eggs, 
which were white, with small specks of reddish-brown on the small end, and heavily 
spotted with the same on the larger end. For two inches below the centre of the hole and 
for half an inch on either side, the birch bark was coated with fir balsam. Another nest, 
found June 20, in Holden, Me., was in a poplar stub some twelve feet from the ground. 
This hole had fir balsam one fourth of an inch thick for two inches below the hole, and 
then thinner, and running down in large drops for twenty-one inches below the hole. 
The pitch extended one inch on either side, and more than three inches above the hole, 
in all more than could be heaped upon a large tablespoon. This nest had been occupied 
two years. Near both the nests were other holes not so deep, probably used for one 
of the birds to occupy while the other is sitting, as is the case with most Woodpeckers. 
Both nests were composed of fine short grasses and roots. Mr. Hardy noticed that in 
making the hole, the bird makes a circle of holes around a piece about as large as a 
dime, and then takes out the piece of bark entire. Another nest, found by Mr. Merrill 
of Bangor, was also surrounded by pitch. “It seems certain,” concludes Mr. Hardy, 
“that in most cases they do this, though for what purpose, I am unable to determine. 
The pitch certainly was placed there by the birds, as neither birch nor poplar contains 
