The Nuthatch. 165 



dissimilarity in the bills of the Creepers and Nuthatches, the latter are decidedly- 

 less insectivorous, and their manner of sitting across a branch to crack a nut, is 

 infinitely more suggestive of a Tit than a Creeper; whilst their softer shorter 

 tails, stouter legs, and the character of their nostrils, serve at once to distinguish 

 them from the Ceythiida. 



As a student of Bird-life, rather than of Bird-mummies, the convenience of a 

 distinct family for the Nuthatch commends itself to the writer. 



Family—SITTID^. 



The Nuthatch. 



Sitta cccsia, WOLF. 



THE British race is found on the Continent northward as far as Jutland ; it 

 is generally distributed from the Baltic southwards to the Mediterranean 

 and Black Seas, and is said to occur in Algeria and Morocco ; eastwards 

 its range is uncertain. 



In England it is pretty generally distributed, being common in well-wooded 

 districts of the southern and central counties, but in the northern counties it is 

 much rarer and more local ; in Scotland it has occurred three or four times, but 

 in Ireland it appears to be unknown. 



The male Nuthatch, when adult, has the upper parts slate- grey, the flights 

 smoky-brown, with greyer margins ; two central tail-feathers slate-grey, remaining 

 feathers with the basal three-fourths black, then crossed by a white bar, bej'ond 

 which they are grey : a black stripe from base of upper mandible, through the 

 eye, to the side of the neck separating the gre}' of the crown and nape from the 

 buffish-white cheeks, ear-coverts, chin, and front of throat ; remainder of under 

 surface buff, streaked and shaded with deep chestnut on the flanks and sides of 



