CAROLINA NUTHATCH. 
201 
,P merely to inquire how she is, and to lighten the 
^'^®us moments with his soothin;^ chatter. He seldom 
(j*J*'’lc 8 fai' from the spot ; and when danger appears, 
I Adless of his own safety, he flies instantly to alarm 
''' When both are feeding on the trunk of the same 
or of adjoining- ones, he is perpetually calling- on 
and, from the momentary pause he makes, it is 
'Ji*' that he feels pleased to hear her reply, 
ifj he white-hreasted nuthatch is common almost every 
L^re iu the woods of North America, and may be 
at a distance, by the notes, qimnk, quank, fre- 
sj**tly repeated, as he moves, upward and down, in 
'^^Knrcles, around the body and larger branches of 
H-l • probing behind the thin scaly hark of the 
li|“‘e oak, and shelling off considerable pieces of it, in 
K^arch after spiders, ants, insects, and their larvse. 
fests and roosts with his head downwards, and 
Hj Wars to possess a degree of curiosity not common in 
t L ^ birds ; frequently descending, very silently, within 
where you happen to 
ia '*> stopping, head downward, stretching out his neck 
in* horizontal position, as if to reconnoitre your 
Vjp'^i'ance ; and, after several minutes of silent obser- 
W?-''’ "’heeling round, ho again mounts, ii’ith fresh 
hi piping his unisons as before. Strongly attached 
tin- . native forests, he seldom forsakes them ; and, 
I'bt the ; • ■ ■ 
•nost endearing manner. Sometimes he seems to 
rigours of the severest winter weather, his 
still beard in the bleak and leafless woods, and 
Sei 
the howling branches. Sometimes the ram, 
*"**’^’ encloses every twig, and even the 
' of the tree, in a hard tnansparent coat or shell of 
45^ 9 " these occasions 1 have observed his anxiety 
W "'^satisfaction, at being, with difficulty, able to 
ivny along the smooth surface; at these times 
'ti,l,>*^hy abandoning the trees, gleaning about the 
•*’ "round the house, mixing among the fowls, 
the h.arn, and examining the beams and rafters, 
q "Very place where he may pick up a subsistence. 
® flame nuthatch has been bestowed on this family 
