Shrewd little hunter of woods all gray,
Whom I meet on my walk of a winter day,
You’re busy inspecting each cranny and hole
In the ragged bark of yon hickory hole;
You intent on your task, and I on the law
Of your wonderful head and gymnastic claw!
The woodpecker well may despair of this feat—
Only the fly with you can compete!
So much is clear; but I fain would know
How you can so reckless and fearless go,
Head upward, head downward, all one to you,
Zenith and nadir the same to your view?
—Edith Thomas.
THE BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH.
(_Sitta pusilla._)
Come, busy nuthatch, with your awl,
But never mind your notes,
Unless you’ve dropped your nasal chords
And tuned your husky throats.
—Ella Gilbert Ives, “Robin’s Thanksgiving Proclamation.”
Of the twenty species of nuthatches known to inhabit the temperate
regions of the Northern hemisphere, but four are distinctively American.
They are classed by ornithologists with the tits and chickadees in the
family Paridæ, a word derived from the Latin parus, meaning a titmouse.
The nuthatches, like the woodpeckers, are climbers, but unlike the
latter they climb downward as well as upward and with equal facility.
Their tails are very short and are not used for support. Their bodies
also do not touch the tree “unless they are suddenly affrighted, when
they crouch and look, with their beaks extended, much like a knot with a
broken twig to it.” A sudden clapping of the hands or a sharply spoken
word will often cause a nuthatch to assume this attitude. They are busy
birds, yet they are seldom too absorbed in their work of gathering food
to stop and closely scrutinize an intruder. “Few birds are easier to
identify: the woodpecker pecks, the chickadee calls ‘chickadee,’ while
the nuthatch, running up and down the tree trunks, assumes attitudes no
bird outside of his family would think of attempting.”
They do not always seek their food in the crevices of the bark of trees
but, flycatcher-like, will fly outward from their perch and catch
insects on the wing. Mr. James Newton Baskett relates the following
interesting observation: “One spring day some little gnats were engaged
in their little crazy love waltzes in the air, forming little whirling
clouds, and the birds left off bark-probing and began capturing insects
on the wing. They were awkward about it with their short wings and had
to alight frequently to rest. I went out to them and so absorbed were
they that they allowed me to approach within a yard of a limb that they
came to rest upon, where they would sit and pant till they caught their
breath, when they went at it again. They seemed to revel in a new diet
and a new exercise.”
The Brown-headed Nuthatch is abundant from Louisiana and Florida to the
southern part of Maryland. It also strays, at times, farther north, for
it has been taken in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. In the pine woods of
the Southern States it passes a happy existence, always chattering in
bird language even when its head is downward. “Each one chatters away
without paying the slightest attention to what his companions are
saying.” Mr. Chapman says: “There is such a lack of sentiment in the
nuthatch’s character, he seems so matter-of-fact in all his ways, that
it is difficult to imagine him indulging in anything like a song.”
Though these words have reference to another species, they apply equally
well to the Brown-headed form, whose only note seems to be a monotonous
and oft-repeated utterance of a single syllable.
For its nest it selects a suitable hole in the trunk of a tree, or in a
stump, that is usually not far from the ground. This it lines with
grasses, fine, soft fibers and feathers. Here are laid about six creamy
white eggs that are spotted with a brownish color. The parents are
attentive to their young and seldom associate with others of their kind
till these family cares are finished. Then they become more sociable and
are found in companionship not only with other Brown-heads but also with
woodpeckers, warblers and chickadees.
[Illustration: BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH.
(Sitta pusilla.)
Life-size.
FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES.]