oiter your appearance, and after
several minutes of silent observation, wheeling around, he again
mounts, with fresh activity, piping his unisons as before... Sometimes
the rain, freezing as it falls, encloses every twig, and even the trunk
of the tree, in a hard, transparent coat or shell of ice. On these
occasions I have observed his anxiety and dissatisfaction at being with
difficulty able to make his way along the smooth surface; at these
times he generally abandons the trees, gleans about the stables, around
the house, mixing among the fowls, entering the barn, and examining the
beams and rafters, and every place where he may pick up a subsistence."

Our charming white-breast has a little cousin called the red-breasted
nuthatch (_Sitta canadensis_), whose under parts are rufous or reddish
buff instead of white. His crown and nape are black, then a white band
runs back from the base of the upper mandible to the hind neck, and
below this a black stripe reaches back in a parallel direction and
encloses the eye. His upper parts, save those mentioned, are bluish
gray. He is considerably smaller than the white-breast, and his range
is more northerly in summer; but, unlike his cousin, he does not breed
throughout his range; only in the localities which he selects for his
summer home. Hence he is a migrant, dwelling in winter in the southern
states, and in summer in the latitude of Manitoba and Maine and
northward, and also on the summits of the mountains as far south as
Virginia. It will be seen that the breeding precincts of the two
species overlap, while in winter _canadensis_ comes down from the north
and takes up his abode in the southern part of the demesne of
_carolinensis_.

While the white-breast is partial to oak, beech, maple, and other
deciduous forests, his little relative prefers a woodland of pine,
being very fond of scampering about on the cones, clinging to them with
his strong claws, and extracting the seeds with his stout little bill.
His call, though much like the "yank" of the white-breast, is pitched
to a higher key, and has even a more pronounced nasal intonation,
sounding as if he had taken a severe cold. Besides, he gives
expression to some cheery notes that seem to be reserved for his own
family or exclusive social circles. I found these pretty nuthatches in
the pine woods on Mackinac Island in midsummer, and have good reason to
believe that they breed there.

Cavities in trees or stum