WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 
Srn’A CAROLINENSIS. 
Char. Above, bluish ash ; top of head and neck black ; wings black, 
blue, and white ; tail black, marked with white ; beneath, white ; under 
tail-coverts reddish brown. Bill long and acute. Female and young 
similar, but black of head tinged with ashy or wanting. Length 5^ 
inches. 
In open woodland, placed at the bottom of a cavity excavated 
in a dead tree or stump, — sometimes an old woodpecker’s nest is used; 
made of leaves, grass, feathers, and hair. 
4-8 (occasionally as many as to, usually 5) ; white tinged with 
rose pink, and spotted with reddish brown and lilac ; 0.80 X 0.60. 
This species, so nearly allied to the European Nuthatch, re- 
sides permanently throughout North America, from Hudson 
Bay and Oregon to the tableland of Mexico, appearing only 
more common and familiar at the approach of winter in con- 
sequence of the failure of its food in its favorite sylvan re- 
treats, which it now often forsakes for the open fields, orchards, 
or gardens, where, in pairs or small and sometimes contending 
