Part 49

LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN Telmatodytes palustris palustris (Wilson)

Description.—Crown brown, bordered on sides with black; white line over eye; middle of back black streaked with white, rest of back brown; wings and tail barred with black; underparts white; sides reddish brown. Length: About 5 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A migrant and summer resident in suitably marshy situations from latter April to early October. It is very local in occurrence.

Nest.—A globular, strongly built structure of grasses and cat-tail leaves, made while the materials are damp, and placed among weeds or rushes a few feet from ground or water; the entrance is on the side. Eggs: 5 to 9, dark brown, or light brown, heavily and finely spotted with darker brown.

To find these wrens, wade out into the very heart of the marsh. Here the clackety songs of the nervous creatures announce to us that we are near the nest. We find three or four of these, but discover no eggs. Patient hunting finally reveals a set of eggs after we have located perhaps a dozen “dummy” nests.

BROWN CREEPER Certhia familiaris americana Bonaparte

Description.—Climbs a tree-trunk like a woodpecker; smaller than an English Sparrow; bill curved like a wren’s. Plumage brown above, considerably streaked and otherwise marked with white, grayish, and darker brown; underparts grayish white; tail-feathers pointed and somewhat barred. Length: 4½ inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A common migrant in March and April and in September and October; occasional, sometimes common, in winter; a summer resident only at high altitudes or in northern counties.

Nest.—Of bark-strips, fibers, plant-down, and the like, placed under loose or curled bark, at from 6 to 20 feet from the ground, usually in a dense, low, woodland or wooded swamp. Eggs: 4 to 7, white, spotted with brown.

The Brown Creeper’s fine, lisping call is not always heard, even by the keenest ear. Its song is a delicate, warbler-like bit which I have syllabized as dee-dee, diddily, de-dwee. This bird begins his trunk-searching at the base of the tree; he ascends spirally, searching carefully as he jerks along and when he gets to the upper branches, he dives to the base of the next tree, to begin his ascent again.

WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH Sitta carolinensis cookei Oberholser

Description.—Size of English Sparrow, but with long, pointed bill, short tail, and short, strong feet. Adult male: Crown glossy blue-black; rest of upperparts blue-gray; outer tail-feathers blackish, tipped with black and white; wings with indistinct bars, and the tertials marked with black spots; sides of head and underparts white; under tail-coverts mottled with reddish brown. Female: Similar, but top of head grayish, not black. Length: 6 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A common, permanent resident throughout.

Nest.—Of hair, mosses, feathers, and shredded bark, placed in a cavity at from 15 to 60 feet from the ground, usually in a forest tree. Eggs: 5 to 9, white, spotted evenly and thickly with reddish brown.

The Nuthatch’s habit of perching and hopping, upside down, on tree-trunks is unmistakable. Actually, he seems to prefer to eat his food thus, making it proper to say, perhaps, that he eats his caterpillars up. He may realize that the creepers, woodpeckers, and Black and White Warblers, working upward as they do, find the insects which can be seen from below or from the side, while he prefers to investigate the crannies that these other birds may pass by.

This neighborly winter bird visits the food-counter regularly and is very fond of suet. He has the habit of hiding food in the bark of trees. I once saw a Nuthatch thus hoarding sunflower seeds. At least a full hour he worked, hiding dozens of the little kernels. He was watched and followed by a pair of lazy Downy Woodpeckers who deliberately ate the seeds as fast as the Nuthatch could hide them. The Nuthatch, it appeared, has great faith in his ability to hide food where it cannot be found—so great a faith, in fact, that he did not properly guard his store.

He calls drrr, drrr, drrr in a nasal voice, as he busies himself with pounding at a bit of food. As he looks out from the trunk his neck is bent from his body at even more than a right angle, yet he does not seem to tire of these strained attitudes.

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH Sitta canadensis Linnæus

Description.—Smaller than English Sparrow. Male: Crown and wide line through eye to back of head, glossy black; line over eye white; rest of upperparts bluish gray, the outer tail-feathers blackish with white spots near their tips; underparts pale reddish buff, save on throat which is whitish. Female: Similar, but duller, the black of the head replaced with gray. Length: 4½ inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A migrant in late April and May, and more or less throughout the fall; occasional in winter, sometimes abundant. Nests rarely in northern counties and at high altitudes.

Nest.—Of mosses, hair, and such soft materials, in a cavity, often in a conifer. Eggs: 4 to 7, white, speckled with brown and gray.

The Red-breasted Nuthatch’s mouselike body seems strangely small as it moves about the great trunk of a high hemlock, far from the ground. As it disappears behind the tree, we hear its querulous, complaining nă, nă, nă, as it searches for insects. During migration it is often to be seen about the outer twigs where it sometimes hangs upside down, like a Chickadee. On the tree-trunks its actions are much the same as those of its larger relative, the White-breasted Nuthatch. (See illustration, page 153.)

TUFTED TITMOUSE Bæolophus bicolor (Linnæus)

Description.—Size of English Sparrow; with prominent crest. Upperparts gray, forehead dark brown, a light spot in front of and above eye; underparts grayish white, the sides washed with reddish brown. Length: 6 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A common permanent resident in southern and middle counties, gradually extending its range northward.

Nest.—Mass of leaves, mosses, hair, and feathers, placed in a cavity, at from 10 to 30 feet from the ground. Eggs: 5 to 8, white, spotted and blotched with reddish brown.

A small gray bird with a noticeable crest is likely to be the Tufted Tit. He is fond of the lower branches and is almost never seen perching on a tree-top, where the Cedar Waxwing, another crested species, prefers to watch for passing insects.

The song, which is a musical whistle, may be written wheedle, wheedle, wheedle. He has other call-notes which resemble those of the Chickadee. In his nest he gives a snake-like hiss.