Dogs and cats, as you know, show how they feel by the way they move the tail. Birds do the same, some much more than others. If you watch the way in which they move their tails, you can learn to tell how a bird feels almost as well as if he could speak to you.
FOOTNOTE:
[3] See [Appendix, 2].
IV
THE NUTHATCH AND CHICKADEE FAMILY
(Paridæ)[4]
This is another family of small birds. The nuthatches are lively, restless little creatures. You generally see them scrambling over the trunks of trees, head up or head down, as it happens. They are dressed in sober colors, and spend their lives picking tiny insects out of the crevices of the bark.
The White-breasted Nuthatch is the best known in the East. In California the slender-billed takes his place, being about the same in dress and manners. Both of them, East and West, go about calling "quank, quank." The dress is slate-blue and white, with a white breast, a black cap, and black on wings and tail.