CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 315 



foliage I found the birds very difficult to locate, and 

 the difficulty was rendered more so by their shy and 

 restless habit, always taking advantage of all the 

 cover they could get in the top branches of the trees, 

 and never waiting long enough to enable me to get 

 up to the particular tree where I fancied they must 

 be from their call-note. However, I was determined 

 not to be beaten, and succeed I did at last in getting- 

 them before nightfall, but it was dark before I got 

 back. In regard to the breeding-habits Howard 

 Saunders says, " The nesting-hole, smaller than that 

 made by the Green Woodpecker is generally hacked 

 out in a similar manner, but according to good authori- 

 ties a natural cavity in a dead branch is sometimes 

 prolonged and utilised, and several holes are often 

 cut out before the bird is satisfied. The six or seven 

 eggs, laid on the bare wood about the middle of 

 May, are creamy-white in colour ; incubation, in 

 which both parents take part, lasts a fortnight. The 

 food consists of insects and their larvae, but in 

 winter berries of the mountain ash, nuts, acorns, 

 &c., are eaten. The note is a sharp "tchick," and 

 sometimes a low reiterated 'tra,' but the male often 

 makes a loud vibrating noise by rapidly hammering" 

 with his bill on the bark of a tree." 



The Nuthatch. 



Order, Passeres. Family, SittidcB. 



This species, which resides with us all the year 

 round, cannot be said to be widely distributed, but 



