RED-BELLIED NUTHATCH. J25 
The nest of the Nuthatch isa hole in a tree generally excavated by 
the bird to the depth of a foot or more, sometimes a natural cavity. 
It is lined abundantly with down, hair and feathers. Mr. H. C. Benson, 
of Gambier, informs me that he has known them to buildin a crevice in the 
wall of a stone building. The eggs are from four to six, white, with a 
roseate tinge when fresh, thickly covered with spots and blotches of rusty 
brown and purplish. The young lack the black on the head. 
SITTA CANADENSIS IL. 
Feed=-bellied Nuthatch. 
Sitta canadensis, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 164.--READ, Proc. Philad. Acad. 
Nat. Sci., 1853, 395.—WHwaTON, Ohio Agric. Ren for 1860, 365; Reprint, 1861, 7; Food 
of Birds, ete., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 13874, 562; Reprint, 1875, 2.— LANGDON, Cat. Birds of 
Cin., 1877, 4; Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, i70; Reprint, 4. 
Sitta canadensis, LINNAUS, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 177. 
Above dark ashy blue, tail «s in carolinensis. Below rusty brown. Wings plain. 
Crown and nape glossy black, bordered by a white superviliary tine. A black line from bill 
through and widening beyoud the e e. 
lathe, wooded portions of Temperate North America. 
Rather common but irreguiar spring and fall migrant. Winter visitor 
in South-western Ohio. The Red-bellied Nuthatch arrives in this vicin- 
ity from the south about the middle of April, and may be found until 
the middle of May. Usually single birds are seen which accompany the 
Titmice, Creepers, and Blue birds. On one occasion, spring of 1874, I 
found them in large flocks in company with equally large flocks of Red- 
starts. While their habits are essentially the same as those of the White- 
bellied Nuthatch, they are more often seen on the smaller branches and 
twigs of trees than is the case with the latter. 
Mr. Brewster describes (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, ii1, 1878, 20) the breed- 
ing plumage of this bird as differing from that heretofore given, and as 
having the ‘ entire under parts dirty white, buerd very slaghily with pale 
rusty on the breast, sides, abdomen, and crissum.” In the spring of 1874, 
I tock a couple of these birds answering this description, but unfortu- 
nately having secured several others at the same time, in what I thought 
to be in higher plumage, they were not preserved. 
Until lately little has been known of their breeding habits. The nest 
is excavated in the stub of a tree and is about eight inches in depth, 
with much the appearance of the nest of the Downy Woodpecker. 
The entrance to the nest is said to be frequently coated with the balsam 
of the fir. The hole is plentifully supplied with down and feathers. The 
red feathers from the breast of the bird are said to be especially noticeable. 
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