(Illustration facing p. 87)
_Length_--4 to 4.75 inches. One-third smaller than the English
sparrow.
_Male_--Lead-colored above; brownish on wings and tail. Head, neck,
and stripe passing through eye to shoulder, black. Frontlet,
chin, and shoulders white; also a white stripe over eye, meeting
on brow. Under parts light, rusty red. Tail feathers barred with
white near end, and tipped with pale brown.
_Female_--Has crown of brownish black, and is lighter beneath
than male.
_Range_--Northern parts of North America. Not often seen south
of the most northerly States.
_Migrations_--November. April. Winter resident.
The brighter coloring of this tiny, hardy bird distinguishes it from
the other and larger nuthatch, with whom it is usually seen, for the
winter birds have a delightfully social manner, so that a colony of
these Free masons is apt to contain not only both kinds of nuthatches
and chickadees, but kinglets and brown creepers as well. It shares the
family habit of walking about the trees, head downward, and running
along the under side of limbs like a fly. By Thanksgiving Day the
_quank!_ _quank!_ of the white-breasted species is answered by the
_tai-tai-tait!_ of the red-breasted cousin in the orchard, where the
family party is celebrating with an elaborate _menu_ of slugs,
insects' eggs, and oily seeds from the evergreen trees.
For many years this nuthatch, a more northern species than the
white-breasted bird, was thought to be only a spring and autumn
visitor, but latterly it is credited with habits like its congener's
in nearly every particular.
[Illustration: CATBIRD]
[Illustration: WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, Upper Figures, Male and Female
RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, Lower Figures, Male and Female]