NUTHATCH. 73 



counties it is very scarce, and in Scotland and Ireland 

 almost unknown. The Nuthatch is so called from its 

 partiality for nuts ; these it will fix in the crevice of a 

 tree, and hammer away at them with its sharp-pointed 

 bill, until it is able to get at the kernel. Very often 

 it has a favourite crevice, to which it will return again 

 and again, until quite a heap of nutshells accumulates 

 beneath. Although nuts are, perhaps, its favourite 

 food, it also enjoys acorns, insects and caterpillars. 



NUTHATCH. 



Its usual resorts are woods of large oak and beech 

 trees, about the trunks of which, from its peculiar 

 formation of feet and claws, it climbs with astonishing 

 ease and rapidity. The peculiarity of the Nuthatch 

 is that, whether it is ascending or descending a trunk, 

 it moves with equal ease, being quite independent of 

 any support from its tail, which it does not use in 

 climbing like the Creeper or Woodpecker. 



It is very plentiful in the New Forest. The country- 



