NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 479 



727a. SXiENDEB-BILLED NUTHATCH. Sitta carolinensis aculeata (Cass.) 

 Geog. Dist. — Western United States east to and including the Rocky Mountains, 

 south into Mexico. 



This bird is similar to the last but has a longer and slenderer bill. It is abundant 

 in the wooded and mountainous regions of the West, replacing 8. carolinensis. It 

 possesses the same characteristic habits of the White-breasted Nuthatch of the 

 Eastern States, nesting also in a like manner. Mr. W. O. Emerson states that it 

 breeds in all the coast range valleys of California, wherever there is plenty of white 

 and black oak timber, and also high up in the Sierras. The nests are built in 

 cavities or knot-holes of trees and stumps, composed of feathers and sometimes 

 mostly of rabbit's fur. Six or seven eggs are usually laid; they are crearny-white 

 speckled with reddish-brown and hazel. The late Col. B. P. Goss had a set of seven 

 eggs in his extensive collection which he took from a hole in a tree seven feet from the 

 ground, in Southern California, May 7, 1884. These measure respectively, .75x.57, 

 .75X.53, .74X.53, .74x.53, .73x.57, .78x.54, ,71x.57, .72x.56. 



7276. FLORIDA WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. Sitta carolinensis at- 

 kinsi Scott. Geog. Dist. — Florida, and northward along the coast to South Caro- 

 lina. 



The habits, nests and eggs of this race are identical with those of S. carolinensis. 



)( 728. BED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. Sitta canadensis Linn. Geog. Dist.- 

 Whole of North America, breeding chieiiy north of the United States, except in west- 

 ern mountainous regions; Eastern United States chiefly in winter. 



This is a common bird throughout North America, breeding from Northern 

 United States northward. Its habits are essentially the same as those of S. caro- 

 linensis. Mr. Manly Hardy has written a good account of this bird's breeding habits 

 in Maine.* He found them nesting in white birch and poplar stubs, usually from 

 ten to fifteen feet, and sometimes as low down as four feet above the ground. In 

 making the entrance to the nest cavity proper, the birds perforate the bark in a 

 circle with smaller holes, and then take out the center piece. A strange fact con- 

 cerning the nests found by Mr. Hardy and others, is that the bark at their entrance 

 is coated with fir balsam or pitch from an inch to three or four inches around the 

 hole. In one instance the pitch extended down for twenty-one inches, and was 

 stuck full of the red breast-feathers of the Nuthatches. The cavities are about four 

 inches deep, in which the nest is made of fine grass. The eggs, four to six in num- 

 ber, are very thickly spotted with reddish-brown. Average size .60x.50. 



739. BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH. Sitta pusilla Lath. Geog. Dist— 

 South Atlantic and Gulf States, north regularly to Southern Maryland and Virginia, 

 casually to Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, etc. 



The home of the Brown-headed Nuthatch is in the South Atlantic and Gulf 

 States, where it is a common breeder. Its habits are generic. Mr. Arthur T. Wayne 

 states that in South Carolina the Brown-headed Nuthatch pairs in the latter part of 

 January, and the birds begin to excavate a hole in a dead stump or limb of a tree, 

 usually not more than a few feet or inches from the ground, and, again, as high as 

 forty or fifty feet. Eggs may be obtained in March as four or five weeks are required 

 to complete the excavation. Mr. George Noble informs me that h6 found a nest of 



• Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club. Ill, p. 196. 



