Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/336

300 the tenderest manner. The male, ever conspicuous on such occasions, works some, and carries off the slender chips, chiselled by the female. He struts around her, peeps into the hole, chirrups at intervals, or hovers about her on the wing. While she is sitting on her eggs, he seldom ab- sents himself many moments ; now with a full bill he feeds her, now re- turns to be assured that her time is pleasantly spent.

When the young come from the egg, they are fed with unremitting care. They now issue from their wooden cave, and gently creep around its aperture. There, while the genial rays of the summer's sun give vi- gour to their tender bodies, and enrich their expanding plumage, the pa- rents, faithful guardians to the last, teach them how to fly, to ascend the tree with care, and at length to provide for their own wants. Ah ! where are the moments which I have passed, in the fulness of ecstacy, contem- plating the progress of these amiable creatures ! Alas ! they are gone, those summer days of hope and joy are fled, and the clouds of life's win- ter are mustering in their gloomy array.

This species breeds twice in the year, in the Southern and Middle States ; seldom more than once, to the eastward of New York. In the State of Maine, they work at their nest late in May ; in Nova Scotia not until June. Farther north I did not find them. Sometimes they are con- tented with the hole bored by any small Woodpecker, or even breed in the decayed hollow of a tree or fence. The eggs, five or six in number, are dull white, spotted with brown at the larger end. They are laid on detached particles of wood.

The notes of the White-bi-easted Nuthatch are remarkable on account of their nasal sound. Ordinarily they resemble the monosyllables haul, hank, hank, hank ; but now and then in the spring, they emjt a sweeter kind of chirp, whenever the sexes meet, or when they are feeding their young.

Its flight is rapid, and at times rather protracted. If crossing a river or a large field, they rise high, and proceed with a tolerably regu- lar motion ; but when passing from one tree to another, they form a gently incurvated sweep. They alight on small branches or twigs, and now and then betake themselves to the ground to search for food.

Their bill is strong and sharp, and they not unfrequently break acorns, chestnuts, &c., by placing them in the crevices of the bark of trees, or between the splinters of a fence-rail, where they are seen hammering