This  familiar,  hardy,  and  restless  little  bird  inhabits
both  Europe  and  North  America.  In  the  latter  conti-
nent it  is  even  resident  in  winter  around  Hudson's
Bay,  and  h.as  been  met  with  at  62'^  on  the  Northwest
Coast.  It  is,  indeed,  difficult  to  say  in  what  part
of  the  United  States  it  is  most  common,  so  generally
and  equally  has  it  colonized  the  temperate  parts.  In
2i


242  OMNIVOROUS  BIRDS.
winter  they  abound  in  all  the  forests  of  the  Southern
States  to  Florida,  and  probably  extend  their  visits  into
Mexico.  In  all  these  countries,  in  autumn,  families  of
ihem  are  seen  chattering  and  roving  through  the  woods,
busily  engaged  in  gleaning  their  multifarious  food,  along
with  the  preceding  species.  Nuthatches,  and  Creepers,
the  whole  forming  a  busy,  active,  and  noisy  group,  whose
manners,  food,  and  habits  bring  them  together  in  a  com-
mon pursuit.  Their  diet  varies  with  the  season,  for  be-
sides insects,  their  larvae,  and  eggs,  of  which  they  are
more  particularly  fond,  in  the  month  of  September  they
leave  the  woods  and  assemble  familiarly  in  our  orchards
and  gardens,  and  even  enter  the  thronging  cities  in  quest
of  that  support  which  their  native  forests  now  deny  them.
