196 The Utility of the Tit Tribe. [Sess 



having lauded property in Scotland or Norfolk. Its pre- 

 dominant colour is blue, as its name implies. This would 

 in some measure compensate us for the becoming scarcity — 

 owing to the objectionable collectors — of that very pretty 

 bird, the bearded tit {Ccdamophilus hiarinicus). Happily a 

 few landowners in Norfolk are now doing their best to pre- 

 vent the entire extinction of the pretty bearded tit, which 

 I have only once seen in a wild state, and this was in 

 Oxfordshire. I send herewith a coloured illustration of 

 the azure tit, enlarged by my son from the ' Skandinaviska 

 Foglar ' of Korner (Plate XIX.) : the introduction of this 

 would be a. pleasing addition to our avifauna. The book is 

 merely a collection of illustrations of the Scandinavian birds, 

 without any letterpress ; but the bird seems about the size 

 of our P. cmndeus. 



We have here a nut walk or avenue about eighty yards 

 long, the nut- and filbert-trees meeting overhead. This is 

 frequented in the autumn by nuthatches {Sitta europcea), and 

 some of the produce is always left ungathered purposely for 

 them. They are interesting birds in their habits, taking the 

 nuts away and fixing them in the rough bark of an acacia, 

 where they peck out the kernels. They will also eat hemp- 

 seed and beech-nuts. We have a small bird table, consisting 

 of a square board suspended in the garden, on which is placed 

 every morning in the winter food for the tits and other birds, 

 and a few nuts for the nuthatches, and we always welcome 

 the cheerful whistling call-notes of the latter, which can be 

 heard from some distance. They are not shy birds, and will 

 break their nuts within a few yards of us. Woodpeckers 

 and creepers use their tails as a fulcrum in climbing trees; 

 nuthatches never do, but with their tenacious claws run up 

 or down the stem of a tree with equal facility — as Yarrell 

 says, more like a mouse than a bird. I have never seen a 

 nuthatch in Scotland, but they are not uncommon in Switzer- 

 land. Kingfishers frequent the small stream running through 

 Campden, Gloucestershire (where I am writing), and we have 

 also nightingales and the red-backed shrike. 



