RED-BELLIED NUTHATCH. 
583 
ing round, he again ascends to his usual station, trumpet- 
ing his notes as before. He seldom wholly quits the for- 
est, but when baffled by the slippery sleet which denies 
him a foot-hold, he is sometimes driven to the necessity 
of approaching the barn-yard and stables, or the pre- 
cincts of the dwelling, where occasionally mixing among 
the common fowls, entering the barn, or examining its 
beams and rafters, he seems to leave no means untried 
to secure a scanty subsistence. 
Length 5J inches, alar extent 11. Bill black. Legs dusky flesh- 
color. 
RED-BELLIED NUTHATCH. 
( Sitta canadensis , L. Wilsojv, Am, Orn. i. p. 40. pi. 2. fig. 4.) 
Sp. Charact. — Lead-color; head and neck above, and line through 
the eye, black; beneath rust-color; lateral tail-feathers black 
and white. — Young plumbeous on the head. 
The habits of this smaller species are almost similar 
to the preceding ; they have, however, a predilection 
for pine forests, feeding much on the oily seeds of 
these evergreens. In these barren solitudes they are 
almost certain to be found in busy employment, asso- 
ciating in pairs, with the Chicadees and smaller Wood- 
peckers, the whole forming a hungry, active, and noisy 
group, skipping from tree to tree with petulant chat- 
ter, probing and rattling the dead or leafless branches, 
prying in every posture for their scanty food ; and, like 
a horde of foraging Tartars, they then proceed through 
the forest, and leisurely overrun the whole of the conti- 
nent to the very confines of the tropics, retiring north 
in the same manner with the advance of the spring. 
The notes of this species of Nuthatch are sharper than 
those of the preceding. Its motions are also quicker. In 
winter, they migrate to the Southern States, where they 
