32 OUR WINTER BIRDS 



he helps himself to suet! See, also, that he does 

 not swallow it but flies off with it in his bill to a 

 nearby tree. Here he creeps actively about looking 

 for the right kind of a crack or crevice in the bark; 

 when it is found the suet is placed in it and made 

 secure by a few taps of the bill. Then White-breast 

 hurries back to the lunch counter for more and that 

 he hides in another bark cupboard. Perhaps he may 

 repeat this performance many times, and if he can 

 find each little storehouse, he has a memory of which 

 any one might be proud. 



Sometimes White-breast takes a nut or acorn, 

 wedges it tightly in a crack and then hammers away 

 until the shell is broken, when he eats the kernel 

 within. It is this habit which has given him the 

 name of Nuthatch, though one might think that 

 "Nutcracker" would be better. 



We must not judge White-breast's diet by the food 

 he selects from the table we set for him and his 

 friends. Even when this table is ready for him, he 

 spends much time running up and down the trunks 

 and limbs of the neighboring trees looking for the 

 eggs and larvae of insects and spiders which form 

 more than one-half his food. Many of the insects 

 are the enemies of the trees on which they live and, 

 in destroying them, White-breast repays us a thou- 

 sand-fold for our contributions to his larder. 



