Identifier: birdlore141912nati (find matches)
Title: Bird lore
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: National Committee of the Audubon Societies of America National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals National Audubon Society
Subjects: Birds Birds Ornithology
Publisher: New York City : Macmillan Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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pproaching his prey from above he detects insects and insect-eggs in thecrevices of the bark which would be hidden from another point of view. TheWoodpeckers and the Creepers can take care of the rest. Of course theseother birds get something of a downward view as they bend their heads for-ward, but the Nuthatch has the advantage of seeing some insects before hegets to them which even the Creepers gentle approach would scare intocloser hiding. To most of us in the northeastern states the Nuthatch is theNotes White-breasted Nuthatch, and we know him best as a welcome pensioner on our winter bounty and an industriousgleaner of insect food from the trunks and branches of the leafless trees inautumn, winter, and early spring. We love his familiar unmusical notes,which seem so friendly to us, perhaps because they really express an unusualappreciation of the companionship of his kind. The most striking of these isthe one commonly interpreted as quank. To my ear, however, though nasal, (316)
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WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, Upper Figures, Male and FemaleRED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, Lower Figures, Male and Female Order—PasseresGenus—Si tta Family—SiTTiDyE Species—Carolinensis and Canadensis National Association of Audubon SocietiesEducational Leaflet No. 59. The White-Breasted and Red-Breasted Nuthatches 317 it has nothing of the nk in it, while it has a distinct r-like quaver. It may berendered as pr-r-ddp^ sounded through the nose. Another note, reserved forcloser companionship, or soliloquy, is like the syllable tiit, pronounced as inGerman, very short and slight, and repeated irregularly and indefinitely.The home life of the White-breasted Nuthatch is not so well known tomost of us as his winter ways, because he is rather retiring during the nesting-season, preferring the woods with a growth of large oaks or other hardwoodtrees to the neighborhood of human habitations. The spring song, however,begins before the bird leaves his winter haunts. It resembles the familiarlaugh of

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