1887-88.] An Ornithological Visit to Warivick shire. 149 



sities tliey prophesied what was going to take place in a war 

 against the Protestants, and also exposed a plot against the 

 Duke of Brunswick. What was perhaps more interesting, if 

 not so edifying, to the listener, was the apt manner in which 

 they recounted, word for word, the domestic squabblings of 

 the tapster and his wife, whose matrimonial relations seemed 

 to have been none of the happiest ; and, as the writer naively 

 remarks, they repeated not only the ordinary recriminations, 

 but apparently with gusto all the bad language attendant 

 thereon. Having regard to the truth of this narrative, it is 

 perhaps as well that the narrator confesses he was incapa- 

 citated at the time of its occurrence, as the sceptical reader 

 may perhaps be excused for attributing the cause of his 

 malady to an over-indulgence in strong waters, which no 

 doubt had the effect of heightening his imagination. 



Another very curious species common to Warwickshire, but, 

 except in isolated instances, non-resident in Scotland, is the 

 nuthatch. Tins is a smallish blue-coloured bird, about the 

 size of an ox-eye, and in certain respects not unlike it in 

 habits. \i's, forte, is the ease with which it creeps upon tree 

 trunks or branches in any given direction, perpendicularly, 

 horizontally, or in a downward course — in this differing vastly 

 from the common creeper (or " tree-speeler," as it is called in 

 Scotland), which, as a rule, works its way upwards, and rarely 

 if ever downwards. The creeper also, while ascending, makes 

 use of its tail as a prop, and this is useful as a staying power, 

 while it is engaged poking its bill into crevices of the bark ; 

 but the nuthatch, again, relies upon nothing save its claws and 

 legs for a sure foothold, and it is truly wonderful with what 

 ease it runs in any fashion upon the surface of the bark, twist- 

 ing and turning like a gymnast devoid of bones. Its bill is 

 powerful, and well adapted for hammering purposes, such as 

 breaking hazel and beech nuts, upon which it feeds at certain 

 seasons. But its chief object in clambering up trees is to 

 secure the abundant larvse, and insect life in various stages, 

 found concealed in the interstices of the bark. Although not 

 numerous, one could scarcely fail to meet with it now and 

 again ; and I noticed a pair on the highroad from Warwick to 

 Kenilworth busily pecking at something on the ground, but 

 whether an edible substance, or mud to plaster up the entrance 



