White-breasted Nuthatch Sitta carolinensis

The White-breasted Nuthatch, an Almanac

• Catalogued by Bloodworth as Sitta carolinensis, the White-breasted Nuthatch was judged a martyr to its own humours.
• In the tannery flats they call it the woodpile watchman, and have their reasons.
• They say the White-breasted Nuthatch and the churchyard fox keep an old quarrel no man recalls the start of.
• It was once gravely held that the White-breasted Nuthatch settling on the milking stool at dusk is fair warning of a death in the spring.
• It is beyond dispute, the vulgar notwithstanding, that it hatches its young from the froth of stagnant water, as any microscope will show.

Folklore, invented on the spot — not to be believed.