Identifier: birdneighborsint00blacha (find matches)
Title: Bird neighbors : an introductory acquaintance with one hundred and fifty birds commonly found in the gardens, meadows, and woods about our homes
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Blanchan, Neltje, 1865-1918
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York : Doubleday & McClure
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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e, edged with black, that fades tobrown. Tail feathers brownish black, with white bars.Sides of head and underneath white, shading to pale reddishunder the tail. (Females head leaden.) Body flat and com-pact. Bill longer than head. Range—British provinces to Mexico. Eastern United States. Migrations—October. April. Common resident. Most promi-nent in winter. Shrewd little haunter of woods all gray.Whom 1 meet on my walk of a winter day—Youre busy inspecting each cranny and holeIn the ragged bark of yon hickory bole ;You intent on your task, and I on the lawOf 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 1 fain would knowHow you can so reckless and fearless go.Head upward, head downward, all one to you.Zenith and nadir the same in your view ? —Edith M. Thomas. Could a dozen lines well contain a fuller description or moreapt characterization of a bird than these To a Nuthatch ? 84
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WHITE-BREASTED NUT HATCH.Life-size. Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored With more artless inquisitiveness than fear, this lively littleacrobat stops his hammering or hatcheting at your approach, andstretching himself out from the tree until it would seem he mustfall off, he peers down at you, head downward, straight intoyour upturned opera-glasses. If there is too much snow on theupper side of a branch, watch how he runs along underneath itlike a fly, busily tapping the bark, or adroitly breaking the de-cayed bits with his bill, as he searches for the spiders eggs,larvae, etc., hidden there; yet somehow, between mouthfuls,managing to call out his cheery qiiank ! quank ! hank ! hank ! Titmice and nuthatches, which have many similar charac-teristics, are often seen in the most friendly hunting parties onthe same tree. A pine woods is their dearest delight. There, asthe mercury goes down, their spirits only seem to go up higher.In the spring they have been thought by many to migrate inflocks,

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