A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 1 of 3Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Science
A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 1 of 3
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Birds -- North America
It reaches Pennsylvania about the middle of May, and leaves in
September. Wilson noticed a pair feeding their young about the 25th of
June. He supposed this bird to have a more northern distribution than
belongs to it. In the interior they are met with, according to
Audubon, as far north as the southern shores of Lake Erie, where he
found them in the autumn. Mr. Audubon found them more numerous in New
Jersey than anywhere else. In Ohio and Kentucky they are comparatively
rare. Mr. Ridgway informs me that this is a rather common species in
Southern Illinois in the thickest damp woods in the bottom-lands along
the Wabash River.
According to Wilson, these birds are among the nimblest of its family,
and are remarkably fond of spiders, darting about wherever there is a
probability of finding these insects. Where branches are broken and
the leaves withered, it searches among them in preference, making a
great rustling as it hunts for its prey. Their stomachs are generally
found full of spiders and caterpillars.
These birds are arboreal in their preferences, residing in the
interior of woods, and are seldom seen in the open fields. They resort
to the ground and turn over the dry leaves in quest of insects. They
are very unsuspicious and easy of approach.
Nuttall describes their notes and their habits as resembling the
common _Parus atricapillus_, and remarks that they are constantly
uttering a complaining call, sounding like _tshe-dē-dē_.
Until quite recently, nothing has been positively known in regard to
its nesting. Audubon has described its nest as made of dry mosses and
the fallen bloom of the hickory and the chestnut, and as built in
bushes several feet from the ground. He describes the eggs as
cream-colored, marked about the larger end with reddish-brown. These
descriptions have not been confirmed, and all our information has led
us to look for its nest on the ground.
Mr. Trippe states that it is found, but is not at all common, near
Orange, N.Y., where it arrives about the middle of May. It has, at
that time, a rapid, chattering note, and it always, he says, keeps
near the ground, and, besides its chattering song, has in June a
series of odd notes, much like those of the White-breasted Nuthatch,
but more varied and musical, yet hardly entitled to be called a song.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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