128 BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH. 
pitch, and there were no overhanging trees from which a drop could come. IJ think it 
would take the bird several days of steady work to obtain what was around the nest 
in the poplar.” , 
During migration they will frequently visit gardens, where they quietly and fear- 
lessly search the trees from the ground to almost their very tops for inseéts. Even 
in the coldest days they forage without a moment’s rest and move about the trees 
with undiminished ease and grace. The cracked and crannied bark is hunted in the 
most systematic manner. That the fruit trees afford an abundance of food is proved 
by their long stay in orchards, for they will spend half an hour or more in searching a 
single tree. 
NAMES: RED-BREASTED NuTHatcH, Red-bellied Nuthatch, Canada Nuthatch.—Sitelle de Canada (Buff.).— 
Canada-Spechtmeise (German). 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: SITTA CANADENSIS Linn. (1766).—Sitta varia Wils. (1808). 
DESCRIPTION: Male, above, ashy-blue. Top of the head black; a white line above and a black one through 
the eye. Chin, white. Entire under-parts, rusty-brown. Female similar, but the back of the head 
mixed with ashy. Under-parts usually paler. 
Length, 4.50 to 4.75; wing, 2.66; tail, 1.50 inches. 
BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH. 
Sitta pusilla LATH. 
This Nuthatch is very common in the South Atlantic and Gulf States, where I 
observed it from Texas to Florida. It always prefers the pine-woods but by no means 
confines itself to them. Near my house in the post-oak woods in Lee County, Tex., the 
bird was very common. In early March, April and May, when the great bird-waves 
push on to the North, one might readily suppose that these active birds were absent, as 
their voices are lost in the great volume of bird-music that resounds through the woods 
from early morn to the dawn of evening. But the birds are present, nevertheless, and 
search for insects with the same assiduity and repeating their solemn yank, yank, 
with the same regularity as in June and other months. They breed in holes like the 
other Nuthatches. 
NAMES: BRowN-HEADED NUTHATCH. 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: SITTA PUSILLA Latu. (1790). 
DESCRIPTION: ‘Above, ashy-blue; top of head and upper part of neck rather light hair-brown, divided on 
the nape by white. Eye involved in the brown, which is deeper on the lower border. Beneath, muddy- 
whitish; sides and behind paler than the back. Middle tail-feathers almost entirely like the back.” 
(B. B. & R.)—Length about 4 inches. 
