NUTHATCHES 
483 
rule that birds which nest in such situations lay white unmarked eggs, 
their eggs are spotted. Their name is derived from the habit of wedging 
a nut in a crevice of the bark and then attempting to ‘hatch’ or ‘hack’ 
it by repeated strokes with the bill. 
KEY TO THE SPECIES 
A. Underparts more or less washed with rufous; a black or gray streak 
through the eye 728. Red-breasted Nuthatch. 
B. Underparts white or whitish; under tail-coverts more or less rufous; tail 
with white spots. 727. White-breasted Nuthatch. 727 b. Florida 
Nuthatch. 
C. Whole top of the head brown . . . 729. Brown-headed Nuthatch. 
727. Sitta carolinensis carolinensis Lath. White -breasted 
Nuthatch. (Fig. 74a.) Ad. <?. — Top of head shining black; rest of upper- 
parts bluish gray; inner secondaries bluish gray, marked with black; wing- 
coverts and quills tipped with whitish; outer tail-feathers black, with white 
patches near their tips; middle ones bluish gray; sides of head and under- 
parts white; lower belly and under tail-coverts mixed with rufous. Ad. 9. — 
Similar, but black of head veiled by bluish gray. L., 6*07; T., 1*92; B., *70. 
Range. — N. Am. e. of the Plains. Breeds in Canadian, Transition, and 
Upper Austral zones fronr n. Minn., cen. Ont., s. Que., and N. F., s. to the 
n. parts of the Gulf States; casual in Keewatin. 
Washington, common T. V., and W. V., less common S. R. Ossining, 
common P. R. Cambridge, P. R., rare in summer, uncommon in winter, 
common in migrations; most numerous in Oct. and Nov. N. Ohio, common 
P. R. Glen Ellyn, fairly common P. R. SE. Minn., common P. R. 
Nest , of feathers, leaves, etc., in a hole in a tree or stump. Eggs, 5-8, 
white or creamy white, thickly and rather evenly spotted and speckled 
with rufous and lavender, *75 x *57. Date, Cambridge, Apl. 19; se. Minn., 
Apl. 7 . 
When the cares of a family devolve upon him, the Nuthatch eschews 
all society and rarely ventures far from his forest home. But in the 
winter I believe even the birds are affected by the oppressive loneliness; 
the strangers of summer become for a time boon companions, and we 
find Downy Woodpeckers, Chickadees, and Nuthatches wandering 
about the woods or visiting the orchards on apparently the best of 
terms. 
Few birds are easier to identify: the Woodpecker pecks, the Chick- 
adee calls chickadee , while the Nuthatch, running up and down the 
tree trunks, assumes attitudes no bird outside his family would think 
of attempting. His powers of speech are in nowise disturbed by his 
often inverted position, and he accompanies his erratic clamberings by 
a conversational twitter or occasionally a loud, nasal yank, yank, which 
frequently tells us of his presence before we see him. 
He is not too absorbed in his business to have a mild interest in 
yours, and he may pause a moment to look you over in a calm kind of 
way, which somehow makes one feel that perhaps, after all, Nuthatches 
are of as much importance as we. But his curiosity is soon satisfied; 
affairs are evidently pressing, and with a yank, yank, he resumes his 
search for certain tidbits in the shape of grubs or insects’ eggs hidden 
in the bark. 
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