330 Manners of the Nuthatch, 



who have never so nearly observed the ways of an animal as 

 to feel interested in its fate. With us it was different. 



Since our poor nuthatch died, I have observed that 

 White, in his charming work on the Natural History of 

 Selborne, states that the knocking of the nuthatch may be 

 heard at the distance of a furlong ; and that he has frequently 

 placed nuts in the joints of a gate for this bird, which were 

 quickly penetrated by his beak, and the kernel extracted. 

 The beak is uncommonly large and strong for so small a bird. 

 I have requested my friend Mr. Swainson to add a short scien- 

 tific note to this memoir ; such matters not coming within my 

 range. H. S. 



Note by Mr. Swainson, — After this animated sketch from 

 nature (would that we had more of them ! ) scientific details will 

 appear dry ; yet a few may not be misplaced. The great 

 force with which, as my friend describes, this little bird 

 laboured with its bill, led me to examine it minutely, and to 

 compare it with several of the extra-European species ; but 

 in none of these is the bill of an equal size and proportionate 

 strength. It may further be remarked, that, among the *Sittae 

 generally, the end of the bill is more depressed than com- 

 pressed, while the tip is generally rounded : but in the Euro- 

 pean nuthatch, this part, when viewed laterally {Jig. 163. «), ex- 

 hibits a good deal of that abrupt truncation so well adapted 

 for breaking hard substances, which is seen in the woodpecker, 

 the point of whose bill exactly resembles that of a wedge. The 

 only foreign species I have seen, in which 153 



any thing like this structure can be traced, 

 is the *Sitta carolinensis. The group evi- 

 dently stands intermediate between the true 

 Certhiadae and the Picidae of modern orni- ^^^^^SL 5 

 thologists. To the latter it is assimilated 

 by its perfectly straight and somewhat wedge-shaped bill, 

 and by a corresponding economy of habit in procuring 

 nourishment, already so well described. On the other hand, 

 the feet of the Sittae, although scansorial, are not of that 

 peculiar construction which constitutes the typical perfection 

 of climbing birds ; the toes, as in all the Certhiadae, being 

 placed three forwards and one backwards. With this union 

 of characters I am disposed to consider the /Sittae as a dis- 

 tinct type or sub-family of Certhiadae, and that by which 

 nature passes to the true woodpeckers, through the intervening 

 forms of Oxyrhynchus and Yunx. The tongue is not capable 

 of extension ; it is bifid, with the divisions slightly ciliated 

 {fig.lQ^.h^-^W.S. 



