THE NUTHATCH, CHICKADEE AND CREEPER 
185 
Six well-marked types and several races of 
Chickadees inhabit North America from Alaska 
to Mexico, but the one most widely known is that 
just named. 
The White-Breasted Nuthatch 1 deserves 
the most perfect protection and encouragement 
that the people of this country know how to 
offer. One good look at this bird on the trunk 
of a valuable tree, searching as if with a magnify- 
ing glass for the trees’ deadly enemies, — the 
borers, — ought to convert any person to the cause 
of bird-protection. Like the chickadee, the 
Nuthatch remains in the north all winter, be- 
cause he feels that he has not a moment to lose 
in his war on the borers. 
The tree-trunks are his favorite hunting- 
ground, and he goes over them, literally inch by 
inch. He becomes so absorbed in his work that 
he forgets all about himself, and works half the 
time head downward, or oblique, or horizontal, 
as it may happen to be. Rarely does he stop 
to talk, and even then he only clucks in his throat, 
“not necessarily for publication, but as a guar- 
antee of good faith.” 
Often in the silent and snowy woods, when 
your feet go rip! rip! rip! through the frozen 
crust, you hear close overhead a scratching, dig- 
ging sound, as of some one gouging into rough 
bark with a pocket-knife. Look up, and it will 
be a Nuthatch, working away as if his job de- 
pended upon the doing of a daily stint. He 
thinks that in his case it is the late bird that 
catches the worm! His beak is like that of a 
small woodpecker, and although his friend the 
chickadee has more style than he, he himself is 
much better fitted for digging in bark. The top 
of his head is black, his sides, throat and breast 
are pure white, while his back is dull blue, or 
gray-blue. As a climber, this bird surpasses 
the woodpecker, because in clinging to a tree- 
trunk it makes no use of its tail. 
Nuthatches are easily encouraged to make 
your trees their head-quarters. In December, 
nail to a tree-trunk here and there, about twelve 
feet from the ground, some lumps of suet, or fat 
pork on the rind, or beef bones with a little raw 
meat upon them, and see how quickly the birds 
find them out. The “winter residents” will 
feast upon them until the last morsel has disap- 
peared, and they will appreciate your thought- 
1 Sit' la carolinensis. Length, about 6 inches. 
fulness thus displayed precisely when tree- 
borers burrow deepest, and are most difficult 
to get at. 
THE TREE-CREEPER FAMILY. 
Certhiidae. 
The Brown Creeper- represents a small Fam- 
ily of small birds of tree-climbing habits, but 
with bills that are rather too slender for work in 
bark. They are not fitted by nature for digging 
a modest and retiring borer from the bottom of 
his tunnel, and therefore they make a specialty 
of bark-lice and other surface wood-workers 
which can be picked off without hard digging. 
As an example of protective coloration, this 
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 
little creature is worthy of special note. Its 
back is brown, marked by about twelve broad 
stripes of dull gray, and between the two colors 
the striations of bark are surprisingly well imi- 
tated. On the side of an oak, or elm, or chest- 
nut, this little bird is almost invisible until it 
moves. It does not work head downward, like 
the nuthatch, but creeps about with its head up, 
braced by its tail, like a woodpecker. Like 
2 Cer'thi-a fa-mil-i-ar'is americanus. Length, 5% 
inches. 
