538 PASSERIFORMES CHAP. 
Nuthatches are quiet, non-migratory birds, which frequent 
forests or open country with old timber, where they may be 
seen darting quickly from tree to tree with undulating flight, or 
creeping jerkily in Tit-like fashion up and down the trunks or 
over rocks. They seldom seek their food upon the ground, but search 
every cranny, and dig in rotten wood for insects, their larvae, and 
so forth, or coliect nuts, acorns, beech-mast, and seeds; while the 
nuts are cracked by fixing them in chinks and hammering them 
with the whole weight of the body, which swings backwards and 
forwards from the hip-joint. In winter they are exceedingly tame. 
The spring call is a noisy, querulous “ whit-whit,” recalling that 
of the Wryneck, but sibilant sounds and sweeter cries are not 
uncommon, few persons being aware that the British species 
(Sitta caesia) has at least four sets of notes, one of which is 
very Thrush-like.  Svfe/la has a weak, piping voice. In Eng- 
land the nesting-cavity is usually chosen in a tree, but occasionally 
in a wall, haystack, or the like; this is commonly lned with 
scales from conifer trunks, and the entrance blocked up with 
a plaster of clay pierced by a round hole: abroad, however, holes 
in rocks are often utilized, and nests made of moss, bark, hair, 
and feathers. The Indian species do not always plaster up their 
holes, and the American apparently never do so. Stvtel/a forms a 
curious funnel-shaped nest with a very thin rim, in forks or on 
branches, using as materials bark, moss, down, cobwebs, and lichens, 
the bark being applied externally like shingles. The three or four 
greenish or bluish-white eggs, with blackish, grey, or lilac markings, 
are very unlike those of Sit#a, which are white, with fine pinkish- 
red and lilac spots or blotches, and number from five to eight. 
Fam. XIX. Paridae.—The Tits usually have a moderate: and 
shehtly decurved bill, though it is elongated in Sphenostoma and 
Certhiparus,abbreviated with roundish outline in Aeredula, Psaltria, 
and Psaltriparus, more pointed in Aegithalus and Auriparus ; the 
maxilla having little trace of a notch, or the gape of bristles. The 
metatarsi are short, except In Acredula, where the legs are longer 
and the scales tend to fuse; the robust front toes are partially 
united, and possess strong claws. The wings are rounded and 
abbreviated, especially in Aegithalus ; the tail varies considerably, 
being short and nearly square in Parus, long and graduated in 
Acredula and Psaltriparus, intermediate in Psaltria and Spheno- 
stoma, and emarginate in Aegithalus. The nostrils, generally hidden 
