74 NUTHATCH. 



men call it the Jar Bird, from the clatter it makes 

 with its bill against a dead bough or old pole, so loud 

 that it may be heard two hundred yards away. The 

 main colour of its plumage is bluish grey above and 

 white beneath, shading into a red rust colour on the 

 lower part of the breast and belly. 



The nest is made in the hollow of a tree. It fre- 

 quently uses a hole which has been bored by one of 

 the Woodpeckers ; the reason of this being that the 

 Woodpecker bores through the living wood into the 

 rotten heart, which the Nuthatch has not strength to 

 do — it can only work on the decayed substance. In 

 Norfolk, Norgate tells us in the Zoologist, 1880, p. 41, 

 it is not a very uncommon thing to see a dead Scotch 

 pine or alder with as many as a dozen small holes in 

 it, which only penetrate an inch — these are the 

 attempts of the Nuthatch to bore for a nest. If the 

 entrance is too large, the Nuthatch invariably lessens 

 the size by plastering it up with hard clay. I have 

 removed a lump of clay entire from the entrance 

 which weighed nearly nine pounds. In addition to 

 this the Nuthatch will fill up the hole, if it is deep, 

 with pieces of bark, so that when sitting it may be 

 near the opening. As much as two feet of a hollow 

 tree has been filled up in this way. The Starling 

 often usurps the Woodpecker's hole as well to rear 

 its brood in ; and on several occasions its dead 

 body or skeleton has been found in Nuthatches' 

 nests. This looks as though, after the Starling had 

 taken possession of the Woodpecker's home, the Nut- 

 hatch had fixed upon the same dwelling and partially 

 clayed up the entrance, when the Starling being im- 

 prisoned within and unable to get out, perished. 

 There is very little of a nest built — small flakes of 



