NUTHATCHES 341 



NUTHATCHES: Family Sittidae. 



SOUTHERN WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH: Sitta 

 cwrolinensis carolinensis Latham.* 



State records. — The southern race of the white-breasted 

 nuthatch is generally distributed throughout the State, but is 

 nowhere very common. Being nonmigratory, it is found 

 through all the year. Specimens have been examined from 

 Orange Beach, Carlton, Jackson, Autaugaville, Squaw Shoals, 

 Jasper, Ardell, Huntsville, and Sand Mountain (near Car- 

 penter) . Most of these are typical carolinensis, but the Sand 

 Mountain specimens are intermediate between this race and 

 the northern form (cookei). A nest with eggs was found by 

 Grolsan in Autauga County, March 17, 1911,t and one with 

 young by the writer at Jasper, May 5, 1914. 



General habits. — This nuthatch is an inhabitant of rather 

 open timber tracts. Scattered pairs are found both in pines 

 and deciduous timber, but the bird seems to prefer the latter. 

 In habit it resembles both the creepers and the woodpeckers, 

 but excels them all as a climber. It is equally at home above 

 or below a limb and descends a tree head downwards as easily 

 as it ascends. It is a sociable, cheerful bird, not particularly 

 shy, making its presence known by its resonant notes — qv/mk, 

 qucmk, quank, in nasal but not unmusical tones. Its nest, 

 composed of leaves, feathers, hair, strips of bark, etc., is 

 placed in a hollow tree, stump, or fence post, from 2 to 60 feet 

 above the ground. 



Food habits. — This species feeds extensively upon mast — 

 acorns, hickory nuts, beech nuts, etc., but the proportion of 

 this food taken has not been computed. Nuts are placed by 

 the birds in crevices of the bark of trees or in cracks of fence 

 rails and hammered with the bill until they are cracked. It is 

 from this habit that the bird gets its common name. It takes 

 other vegetable food as well, as corn, pine seeds, sunflower 

 seeds, and berries of the Virginia creeper. The animal food 

 consumed includes spiders, beetles, bugs, weevils, ants, flies. 



*Sitt« carolinensig atkinsi of the A. O. U. Check-Ust; for change of name see Th* 

 Auk, voL 36, p. 213, 1918. , ^__, 



fGolsan and Holt, The Auk, vol. 31, p. 234, 1914. 



