NUTHATCH 



527 



the resident birds of France, Italy, and Great Britain. In the more 

 northern birds the black face-markings are wanting, and it is for this 

 reason that the British and French form is separated. 



Resident throughout the British and Irish mainlands, the long- 

 tailed titmouse becomes scarce in the north of Scotland, and is 

 practically unknown in the northern isles, although it was recorded 

 from the Outer Hebrides in 1903. In place of breeding in lioles, 

 these birds make a beautiful oval domed nest, of moss covered with 

 lichens and cobwebs and lined with feathers, in 

 which the hen is believed to brood her clutch 

 of from six to ten or eleven pinkish- white 

 red-speckled eggs with her tail turned up over 

 her back. As with other titmice, the hen will 

 hiss loudly, and furiously attack any would-be 

 robber of her nest, to which she will speedily 

 return after his departure. The nest may be 

 placed either in a thick hedge or on a bough. 

 Long-tailed tits are exceedingly restless birds, 

 constantly uttering their characteristic zi-zi note 

 as they travel down the hedges in family parties 

 or small flocks. 



The British long-tailed tit {Acrediila caiidata 

 rosed) is distinguishable at a glance from A. 

 caiidata typica of northern and eastern Europe 

 by having a broad black band on the sides of 

 the head and shorter body -feathers. It is, 



however, allied to A. caudata europaa of central Europe, from which 

 it differs only by the shorter wing and the presence of a wide black 

 stripe on the side of the head, while in A. c. ciiropcea the head varies 

 from pure white to the black-striped form. Specimens from the 

 Pyrenees seem indistinguishable from the British bird. The Con- 

 tinental A. caiidata typica straggles occasionally into Great Britain, but 

 does not breed there. 



LONG-TAILED TITMOUSK 



Nuthatch 

 (Sitta esesia). 



One of the most interesting of the commoner 

 English birds is the nuthatch (sometimes described 

 as Sitta ctiropcea), which is easily recognised by its 

 slaty blue colour, and represents a small family group, the Sittidae, 

 most of the members of which are natives of the northern hemisphere, 

 although two outlying genera are respectively inhabitants of 

 Madagascar and Australasia. Apparently the nuthatches are near 



