8 
BEAUTIFUL BIEDS. 
find a hole in a tree suitable to its purposes, it hews 
out an excavation with its bill, if it can meet with a spot 
that is wormeaten. The nest is composed generally of 
dead oak-leaves heaped together without much order. 
The manners of the Carolina Nuthatch (Sitta rnela- 
nocephala) are thus described by Wilson. The White- 
breasted Nuthatch is common almost everywhere in the 
w’oods of North America, and mav be knowui at a dis- 
tance by the notes quanh, quanh, frequently repeated, 
as he moves upward and downward in spiral circles 
around the body and larger branches of the trees, prob- 
ing behind the thin scaly bark of the w'hite oak, and 
shelling off* considerable pieces of it in his search after 
spiders, ants, insects, and their larvae. He rests and 
roosts wdth his head downw^ards, and appears to possess 
a degree of cirriosity not common in many birds, fre- 
quently descending very silently within a few feet of 
the root of a tree where you happen to stand, stooping, 
head downwards, stretching out his neck in a horizontal 
position, as if to reconnoitre your appearance ; and after 
several minutes’ silent observation, wheeling round, he 
again mounts with fresh activity, piping his unisons as 
before. Strongly attached to his native forests, he sel- 
dom forsakes them ; and amidst the rigours of the 
severest winter w^eather his note is still heard in the 
bleak leaffess woods, and among the howling branches. 
Of the true Creepers we have an example in this 
country in the common Creeper {Certliia familiaris), 
the only species of its genus found in Europe. It is dis- 
tinguished by a moderately long, slender, compressed, 
curved, sharp-pointed bill ; narrow and tapering tongue, 
which is stiff* and rather horny at the tip. Wings round 
