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THE NUTHATCHES 
By FRANCIS H. ALLEN 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 59 
There is something eerie about these little birds, with their quaint 
form and queer ways ; but if a bird wants to hop down a tree-trunk as 
well as up it, he must dispense with the use of his tail as a support and 
depend entirely upon his two feet, and to balance himself properly not 
only must the feet be strong, the hind toe long, and the claws sharp 
and hooked, but the whole bird must be made short and compact. 
Now, the Nuthatch needs a fairly long bill to poke deeply into the 
crevices of the bark for his insect-food, and a fairly stout one to pry 
off the chips and dig it out, so that the economy in length must be in 
his neck and his tail. And here we have our bird, as Nature has made 
him, and as Mr. Brasher has drawn him — a short, 
squat figure, with a tail only long enough to balance ^^^Serv?ce^ 
his beak and steady him in flight, but with capable feet. 
But why should a bird wish to travel downwards on a tree-trunk? 
To get his daily bread in the way that seems most natural and easy to 
him. Evidently the Nuthatch is filling a gap in nature. He would not 
have adopted so unusual a method of feeding if it had not stood him in 
good stead. I suspect that by approaching his prey from above he 
detects insects and insect-eggs in the crevices of the bark which would be 
hidden from another point of view. The woodpeckers and the creepers 
can take care of the rest. Of course these other birds get something of 
a downward view as they bend their heads forward, but the Nuthatch 
has the advantage of seeing, before he gets to them, some insects which 
even a Brown Creeper’s gentle approach would scare into closer hiding 
in their holes and crannies. 
To most of us who live in the Northern States the Nuthatch is 
THE WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 
We know him best as a welcome pensioner on our winter bounty 
and an industrious gleaner of insect-food from the trunks and branches 
of the leafless trees in autumn, winter, and early spring. We love his 
familiar unmusical notes, which seem so friendly to us, perhaps because 
they really express an unusual appreciation of the companionship of his 
kind. The most striking of these is the one commonly interpreted as 
quank. To my ear, however, though nasal, it has nothing of the nk in it, 
while it has a distinct r-like quaver. It may be rendered as pr-r-ddp, 
sounded through the nose. Another note, reserved for closer com- 
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