Zoology. 243 



within ten yards of my house, Cromwell Cottage, and in a narrow and much 

 frequented lane, leading from near Gloucester Lodge to Kensington. This 

 bird I reared and kept alive till late in January ; when it fell suddenly from 

 its perch, while feeding on a rather large dew worm. It was buried : but I 

 had, long afterwards, strange misgivings, that my poor feathered favourite was 

 only choked by his food, or in a fit of some kind — his apparent death was 

 so extremely unexpected from his health and liveliness at the time. I assure 

 you that I regretted my loss much, my bird being in full plumage and a very 

 handsome creature. He was quite tame, for in autumn I used to set him 

 on a branch of a tree in the garden, while I dug worms for him to dine upon, 

 and he never attempted more than a short friendly flight. During the 

 coldest weather, and it was rather a sharp winter, my only precaution was, 

 nearly to cover the cage with flannel ; and when I used to take it off, more 

 or less, on coming into my breakfast, room in the morning, I was recognised 

 by him with certainly not all the cry " unpleasant to a married ear," but 

 with its full half " Cuckl Cuck!" — the only sounds or notes I ever heard 

 from my bird. Though trifling, these facts may be so far curious as illus- 

 trating the natural history of a remarkable genus, and I have great pleasure 

 in offering them for your excellent Journal. — W. Jerdan.* Brompton. 



Nuthatch. — Sir, In confirmation of the account by your correspondent 

 H. S. (Vol. I. p. 528.) of the persevering exertions of the nuthatch to escape 

 from confinement, I beg to offer you a corroborating instance, which fell 

 under my own observation. When a boy I occasionally amused myself, 

 like other youths, with setting traps for birds, constructed, according to the 

 ordinary method employed for that purpose, of four bricks, one of which 

 was propped up in an oblique position, ready to fall down and secure the 

 bird on its entering the trap. In one of these traps I ensnared a nuthatch. 

 How long it might have remained in confinement, I cannot at this distance 

 of time exactly state, but most probably not more than a few hours. On 

 taking the bird from the trap, I was struck with the singular formation of 

 the beak, so unlike that of any other bird I had ever seen. It was blunt at 

 the end, and presented the appearance of having been truncated in an 

 oblique direction i. e. as if the natural beak {fig. 69. b\ -^ ^ \ fiQ ^ 



had been cut off in the direction of the line (a). Hav- ^^ ^^fe^^^^^-^'^^^ O 

 ing never before examined a specimen so closely, I ''^^^y^ "^"^ * 

 at first thought this apparent truncation constituted ■"^^^ ^^ 



the natural conformation of the beak ; but I soon perceived that it had 

 been fairly ground down to about two thirds of its original length, by the 

 bird's pecking at the bricks in its efforts to escape from the trap. 



As your correspondent does not enter much upon the habits of this 

 amusing bird in its natural wild state, it may not be uninteresting to notice 

 the expertness it occasionally exhibits while engaged in the operation of 

 piercing the shells of nuts, &c. The bird fixes the nut in a chink or cre- 

 vice of the bark of a tree, or the Hke, and commences a vigorous attack 

 upon the shell by forcibly and repeatedly striking it with its beak. This 

 knocking (as your correspondent observes from White) may be heard to a 

 considerable distance. During the operation, it sometimes happens that 

 the nut swerves from its fixture, and falls towards the ground ; it has not 

 descended, however, for the space of more that a few yards, when the nut- 

 hatch, with admirable adroitness, recovers it in its fall, and replacing it in 

 its former position, commences the attack afresh. The fall of the nut in 

 the air, and its recovery by the bird on the wing, I have seen repeated 

 several times in the space of a few minutes. Whether the nuthatch seizes 

 the falling nut with its beak, or, as is more probable, with its grasping feet, 

 I am not able positively to determine. — W. T. Bree. Nov. 15. 1828. 



* The learned and witty editor of the Literary Gazette, 



