So OUR WINTER BIRDS IN THEIR FOOD RELATIONS. 
the codling moth. The bark beetles 
of the family Scolytidce, which are 
destructive to forests all over our 
country, were also freely eaten by 
the chickadee, while the skins of 
sumac berries were eaten to a con- 
siderable extent. (A fuller record 
of the results will be found in Bulle- 
tin 54 of the New Hampshire College 
Experiment Station.) 
The Nuthatches f Sittidce) comprise 
a small family of creeping birds which 
inhabit woodlands chiefly, although 
they often visit trees in orchards and 
groves, or along the highway. Most 
of their food consists of insects gath- 
ered from the bark of trees, but part 
of it is composed of nuts of various 
kinds. They are compact, flattened 
birds, with plumage of modest col- 
ors and hard, barbed, and pointed 
tongues. Four species and one va- 
riety occur in the United States, the 
commonest form in New England 
being the White-breasted Nuthatch, 
which in the Middle and Western 
states is replaced by a variety with 
a more slender bill. This bird is fre- 
quently abundant in woodlands and 
moves actively about over trunks and 
branches in search of food. Profes- 
sor King examined the stomach con- 
tents of twenty-five Wisconsin speci- 
mens, finding that fourteen of them 
had eaten beetles, including elaters 
and longicorns, while others con- 
tained ants, caterpillars, and ‘beetle 
grubs, a spider and chrysalid, a few 
small fungi, some acorns, and a little 
corn. Four Illinois specimens had 
eaten beetles of various kinds, some 
of them being lady-beetles. The 
nest of this bird is built in a hole 
in a tree, the cavity being some- 
times excavated by the Nuthatch, 
and sometimes by another bird or a 
falling limb. The rapid destruction 
of forests and the thinning out of 
dead trees in orchards and wood- 
lands must reduce the available nest- 
ing sites and thus tend to lessen the 
numbers of Nuthatches. There is 
some reason for supposing that if 
suitable nesting sites were provided 
in orchards, these birds would breed 
in them. It is an experiment well 
worth trying. 
The Brown Creeper is the common 
American representative of the small 
family of creepers ( CertliiidcE ) , of 
which only about a dozen species 
are known in the entire world. In 
habits and outward appearance these 
birds are suggestive of woodpeckers. 
They have rigid tail-feathers and a 
slender, decurved bill, with toes fitted 
for running up the sides of trees. 
The American species is a small 
bird, restless and active ; it may 
often be seen running up tree trunks 
in a spiral direction, or hanging head 
downwards after the manner of nut- 
hatches. It nests in holes in trees, 
and in most of the Northern states 
may be found throughout the year. 
Very few precise determinations of 
its food have been recorded ; three 
stomachs examined by King con- 
tained small beetles and other in- 
sects, and Nelson reports that he 
has seen several of these creepers 
011 the sides of a house searching 
for spiders. It seems probable that 
they take a great variety of such 
insects as they can find on the bark 
of trees. 
The most abundant of our winter 
woodpeckers are the Hairy and the 
Downy species. The Hairy Wood- 
pecker is a particularly useful bird, 
searching persistently for the wood- 
boring grubs that live beneath the 
