176 
THE WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 
degree of liveliness, which distinguish it at once from other birds. Now 
and then it has a quaint look, if I may so speak, while watching the 
observer, clinging to the bark head downward, and perhaps only a few feet 
distant from him whom it well knows to be its enemy, or at least not its 
friend, for many farmers, not distinguishing between it and the Sap-sucker, 
(Picus pubesce7is,) shoot at it, as if assured that they are doing a commend- 
able action. 
During the breeding season, the affection which this bird ordinarily 
shows to its species, is greatly increased. Two of them may be seen busily 
engaged in excavating a hole for their nest in the decayed portion of the 
trunk or branch of a tree, all the time congratulating each other in the 
tenderest manner. The male, ever conspicuous on such occasions, works in 
earnest, and carries off the slender chips, chiselled by the female. He struts 
around her, peeps into the hole, chirrups at intervals, or hovers about her 
on the wing. While she is sitting on her eggs, he seldom absents himself 
many moments ; now with a full bill he feeds her, now returns to be assured 
that her time is pleasantly spent. 
When the young come from the egg, they are fed with unremitting care. 
They now issue from their wooden cave, and gently creep around its 
aperture. There, while the genial rays of the summer’s sun give vigour 
to their tender bodies, and enrich their expanding plumage, the parents, 
faithful guardians to the last, teach them how to fly, to ascend the tree with 
care, and at length to provide for their own wants. Ah ! where are the 
moments which I have passed, in the fulness of ecstacy, contemplating the 
progress of these amiable creatures ! Alas ! they are gone, those summer 
days of hope and joy are fled, and the clouds of life’s winter are mustering 
in their gloomy array. 
This species breeds twice in the year, in the Southern and Middle States, 
seldom more than once to the eastward of New York. In the State of 
Maine, they work at their nest late in May ; in Nova Scotia not until June. 
Farther north I did not find them. Sometimes they are contented with the 
hole bored by any small Woodpecker, or even breed in the decayed hollow 
of a tree or fence. The eggs, five or six in number, are dull white, spotted 
with brown at the larger end. They are laid on detached particles of wood. 
The notes of the White-breasted Nuthatch are remarkable on account of 
their nasal sound. Ordinarily they resemble the monosyllables hank, hank , 
hank, kanlc ; but now and then in the spring, they emit a sweeter kind of 
chirp, whenever the sexes meet, or -when they are feeding their young. 
Its flight is rapid, and at times rather protracted. If crossing a river or a 
large field, they rise high, and proceed with a tolerably regular motion ; but 
when passing from one tree to another, they form a gently incurvated sweep. 
