236 BIRD WATCHING 



his bill slip over the outer edges of the fir-clubs, I am 

 inclined to think that he was making the stiff clubs 

 vibrate on their stalks — their hinges, so to speak — 

 in a manner that would tend to loosen the seeds as 

 effectually, perhaps, as would tapping them. 



"Judging by these limited observations, I should say 

 that the nut-hatch was the most skilful of the three in 

 extracting the seeds, as, on the two occasions when I 

 saw him plainly, he flew away with a flake, soon (once 

 almost immediately) after he had come. He looked 

 more like a connoisseur, too, and his bill is much 

 longer. He alone, as I should think, might possibly 

 be able to drive it right down, so as to seize the 

 actual seed. Yet he tapped the cone in the same 

 quick manner as did the tit, nor did he appear to me 

 to be probing it at such times. Moreover, I never 

 observed him — any more than the others — to extract 

 the seed independently of the flake." 



Birds that are not tree-creepers will often behave 

 very much as if they were so, and show different 

 degrees of expertness in the art. It seems quite 

 natural that a small bird, which habitually frequents 

 trees, should sometimes cling to the trunk ; but what 

 surprises me is, that with so much raw material to 

 have worked upon, nature should not have developed 

 some of our small perching birds into actual tree- 

 creepers. My observations on the blue-tit and the 

 wren show, at least, that should anything occur to 

 make it difficult for them to procure food in other 

 ways, or should they (and this is easier to imagine) 

 develop a partiality for some particular kind of insect 

 or other creatures living in the chinks or under the 

 bark of trees — say spiders, for instance, which are 



