Notes from Corsica. 29 



and was promptly shot. Tlie bird being badly bit in the 

 head, I skinned it at once, and thought no more about it 

 until the month of October, when, wishing to know if I had 

 correctly named a few small Warblers, I brought the skin of 

 the Nuthatch to Mr. Sharpe, who assured me that he did 

 not know the bird. At the end of the month, on the night 

 of my dej)arture, he wrote to me : — " There is no doubt your 

 bird is a new species^^'^. 



It was not until the 9th of May 1884 that I was able to 

 make another trip. The first day I did not see a sign of the 

 birds ; but on the second, after wandering about until past 

 mid-day, without seeing any thing but a few Golden-crested 

 Wrens and European Coal Tits, I heard the same curious 

 whistle, and looking about, soon saw and shot a bird which 

 proved to be a beautiful specimen of the new Nuthatch, the 

 head being jet-black, with well-marked and nearly white eye- 

 brows, the underside of the beak being of a delicate blue, 

 which soon faded after death. Knowing that the mate must 

 be near, I remained quiet, and in a few minutes it shared the 

 same fate ; but great was my surprise, on picking it up, to 

 find the black on the head entirely absent, the pale blue of 

 the back running up to the base of the bill ; this bird proved 

 to be the female. A few hours later I came across a small 

 band, three of which I shot. 



On the 12th, provisions having fallen short, I was forced to 

 return to my head-quarters; but on the 16th I returned to 

 search for the nests and was most fortunate. The same 

 evening I watched a pair, which I had noticed on ray first visit, 

 for some hours, and saw the female go twice to a very small 

 and neatly-pecked hole in a very old pine-stump, some 20 

 feet from the ground. The following day I saw the male 

 enter twice with nesting-materials. 



It was not until the 20th of May that I found the second nest, 

 and on the following day, whilst going to cut it out, found 

 another, which I opened first. The nests proved in nearly 

 every case to be most difficult of access, the trees being high, 



* See Mr. Sharpe's articles, P. Z. S. 1884, pp. 233, 329, 414, pi. xxxvi. 



