21^ THE NUTHATCH. 



built in a most singular situation, namelj, in a hole in. a 

 hay-stack. The amount of mud which the birds brought 

 together in this case is something astounding — it weighed no 

 less than eleven pounds. 



In a most interesting account of a tame nuthatch kept 

 by Mrs. Brightwen, a fact is mentioned which suggests that 

 the bird may lay up a store of food for a winter's day. 

 She says : — 



" Zoe regularly honeycombed the little tree-stem with her 

 incessant hammering, and in the numerous holes thus made 

 she kept her store of food, ^o sooner Avas her tin filled 

 with small pieces of raw meat than she began stowing them 

 all away for future use. She seemed to exercise a good deal 

 of thought about the matter : a morsel would be put in and 

 out of a hole half a dozen times before it was considered 

 settled and suitable, and then it had to be well rammed 

 in and fixed, and off went the busy little creature to fetch 

 another piece, and and so on till all was disposed of, and the 

 tin left empty." 



I have never been able to gather any further information 

 on this question although it seems likely that a store is made. 



In order to show that this bird is by no ra.eans so 

 uncommon as some people suppose, I may mention that I 

 saw half a dozen of them this very afternoon in Ashton 

 Park. They all alighted together on the trunk of a large 

 elm and were soon bnsy in search of food, twittering loudly 

 all the time. After watching them for some five minutes, I 

 noticed that they seemed to suddenly disappear one by one, 

 and soon there were none to be seen, and their note had 

 ceased. As I was quite sure they had not flown off, I came 

 to the conclusion that they had retired to roost in some hole 

 out of sight. The explanation was rendered probable by the 

 time of day, which was about 5 p.m. 



