RED-BELLIED, BLACK-CAPPED NUTHATCH. 27 
chinkopins, and hazel-nuts, they may, probably, be able to demolish, 
though I have never yet seen them so engaged; but it must be rather 
in search of maggots, that sometimes breed there, than for the kernel. 
It is, however, said, that they lay up a large store of nuts for winter ; 
but, as I have never either found any of their magazines, or seen 
them collecting them, I am inclined ‘to doubt the fact. From the 
great numbers I have opened at all seasons of the year, I have every 
"reason to believe that ants, bugs, small seeds, insects, and their larve, 
form their chief subsistence, such matters alone being uniformly found 
in their stomachs. Neither can I see what necessity they could have 
to circumambulate the trunks of trees with such indefatigable and 
restless diligence, while bushels of nuts lay scattered round their 
roots. As to the circumstance, mentioned by Dr. Plott, of the Euro- 
pean Nuthatch “putting its bill into a crack in the bough of a tree, 
and making such a violent sound, as if it was rending asunder,” this, 
if true, would be sufficient to distinguish it from the species we have 
been just describing, which possesses no such faculty.* The female 
differs little from the male in color, chiefly in the black being less 
deep on the head and wings. : 
—>——_ 
RED-BELLIED, BLACK-CAPPED NUTHATCH — SITTA 
VARIA. — Fie ~ 
Sitta varia, Bart. p. 289.—Sitta Canadensis, Turton. — Sma. Nuteatca Lata 
*a rod, 
ATTA CANADENSIS. — Linnzw 
Sitta Canadensis, Bonap. Synop. p. 96. 
Turs bird is much smaller than the last, measuring only four inches 
and a half in length, and eight inches in extent. In the form of its 
bill, tongue, nostrils, and in the color of the back and tail-feathers, it 
exactly agrees with the former; the secondaries are not relieved with 
the deep black of the other species ; and the legs, feet, and claws, are 
of a dusky greenish yellow; the upper part of the head is black, 
bounded by a stripe of white passing round the frontlet; a line of 
* When the Nuthatch cracks or splits huts, or stones of fruit, it is for the kernels 
alone ; it is seen, from our various accounts, to be both a seed and grain eater. 
The very curious manner in which our own Nuthatch splits nuts seems perfectly 
proved by several observers ; and it is no less curious, that the same place is often 
resorted to different times in succession, as if it were more fit than another, or required 
less labor than to seek a new situation. Montagu says, that the most favorite po- 
sition for breaking a nut is with the head downwards; and that in autumn it is no 
uncommon thing to find in the crevices of the bark of an old tree a great many 
broken nutshells, the work of this bird, who repeatedly returns to the same spot for 
this purpose : when it has fixed the nut firm in a chink, it turns on all sides to strike 
it with most advantage ; this, with the common hazel-nut, is a work of some labor ; 
but it breaks a filbert with ease. — Ep. ; 
i 
Sw 
