EUROPEAN NUTHATCH. 51 



wards, in which position it is even said at times to sleep. Its 

 flight is rapid, protracted on occasion, but usually short. It 

 has no song, being furnished with only a single pair of inferior 

 laryngeal muscles, but utters a shrill cry at intervals. 



My excellent friend, Mr Harley, writes me on the subject of 

 the Nuthatch as follows: — " This bird remains with us throuorh- 

 out the year, inhabiting the park and old inclosure more than the 

 hedge-row tree or the dense umbrageous wood. In fact, I have 

 never seen it upon our hedge-row trees, although I have often 

 sought for it when I have been watchinf^ the haunts of the 

 Woodpeckers, which so much resemble it in their habits. In 

 winter it is not quite mute, but has a small piping note, not 

 unlike that of the Creeper. This is a call-company note, inas- 

 much as the Nuthatch in winter feeds in little companies or fa- 

 milies of four or six individuals. On the 21st November (1839) 

 I went after a pair of the Greater Spotted Woodpecker and a 

 pair of Nuthatches, in Ganendon Park (near Leicester), the 

 weather being mild, but gloomy, and the wind south. It was 

 not without difficulty that I found the Nuthatches, which in- 

 variably feed where the trees are most protected from the wind. 

 Thus, when the south or forest wind is playing upon the park, 

 the Nuthatches are to be found amongst the large oaks and elms 

 on the north side of it ; and when a north-easter is blowing, 

 these birds are found feeding on the beeches, chestnuts, and 

 pines which grow on the south side. I know of no birds whose 

 habits and manners are so operated upon by the movements of 

 the wind. Whether this arises from their being so much ex- 

 posed to the weather, in consequence of their being almost con- 

 stantly on the bark of trees at all seasons of the year, I cannot 

 say. The Nuthatch searches the bark like the Creeper, but 

 without dcrivins: aid from its tail, and is able to descend with 

 as much ease as it climbs. You see it now ascending spirally 

 the bole of an oak, then creeping horizontally along an arm, 

 now above, now beneath, and again hanging like a Tit, as it 

 gains the thickened foliage, to examine every crevice of the 

 bark, and the young buds. It proceeds by short leaps, jerks, 

 or notches^ and during its progress droops its wings somewhat 

 after the manner of the Hedge Sparrow. At this season (No- 



