Feeding Habits of Sitta canadensis. -On the 28th of October last in the 

 Northern Adirondacks I noticed that the Red-bellied Nuthatches seemed 

 to be feeding exclusively on the seeds of the black spruce. After that I 

 watched them for a number of days, and although they were abundant, 1 

 did not see them feeding on anything else. Alighting on a bunch of 

 cones at the extremity of a bough, the Nuthatch would insert its bill be- 

 tween the scales of a cone and draw out a seed. Then flying to a horizon- 

 tal bough near by it would detach the wing which adheres to each seed, 

 letting^ fall to the ground, swallow the seed, and fly back for another. 

 Frequ'ently a good many trips would be made between the same bunch of 

 cones and the same bough where the wing was separated from the seed. 



The Red-bellied Nuthatches were very abundant — much more so than 

 the White-bellied - and it was an interesting sight to watch them feed- 

 in<^ in this way. One specimen, killed while feeding, contained no food 

 bu°t the seeds of the spruce. I did not observe the White-bellied 

 Nuthatch make use of this supply of food. - C. K. Averill, Jr., Bridge- 

 port, Conn. Auk, V. Jan. 1888. p. //«'• 



1^1 



G«»eral Notes 



Sitta canadensis appearing in Numbers in the District of Columbia. — 



Last autumn the writer collected birds quite extensively atTakoma, D.C., 

 and vicinity, especially in the southern part of Montgomery County, Mary- 

 land. During all that time and the folios 

 men of the Red-breasted Nuthatch (5. 

 there is every reason to believe tliat tliey v 

 the fall migrants of tliat season (1891-1 

 (1892) the case is entirely different, for 

 came early, and in most unusual numbers 

 flocks, associated with the usual autumn 

 Wrens, etc., and upon several occasion 



canadensis) was observed, and 

 rere not at all represented among 

 :892). This autumn, however, 

 in the same localities the bird 

 i. Tliey have appeared in loose 

 small birds, as Juncos, Titmice, 



thirty or forty of th 

 be no trouble in col 

 birds of the year ar 

 and less decided n 

 i appearing th 



fro 



iingle point of observation. There would 

 g as many as fifty specimens in a day. Many 

 ng them, as is indicated by their duller plumage 

 gs. A number of 3'ears ago I remember this 

 iuddenly one autumn in the neighborhood of 

 Stamford, Connecticut, a place where the writer collected birds for a long 

 time early in the sixties and where the species had not been noticed for 

 many seasons. — R. W. Shufeldt, Takoma, D. C. 



Auk X,Jan, 1893. p. 88. 



BuU. N.O.O, 3, Jtfly. X883. p. J . 



512. BeJ>ly to Ornithological Queries. 11, pp. 123, 124. Two 



articles by respectively Wm. L. Kells and Harold Gilbert. They relate to 

 the Whippoorwill. Winter Wren, Hudsonian Titmouse, and Red-bellied 



Nuthatch. San. Bporfc. &N»twallBt 



1482. Sitta Canadensis. By Ellison A. Smyth, Tr Ibid No ,r Mr>„ 



6r; 



