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THE NUTHATCH. 



SlTlA c.*;siA, Wolf. 



The Nuthatch is tolerably common in most of the districts in the 

 south-east and centre of England which contain old timber. In 

 the west it is rarer, although perhaps increasing ; as it is in Brecon- 

 shire and some other parts of Wales, where it was formerly con- 

 sidered a very uncommon bird. In Lancashire it is seldom seen ; 

 in Yorkshire it is mostly restricted to the large old parks : while in 

 the more northern counties it seems to have decreased during the 

 present century, and is now very rare. In Scotland it has been 

 obtained in Berwickshire and Haddingtonshire, and observed in 

 Skye ; while the late R. (Iray records its reported occurrence on 

 Bressay, in the Shetlands. In Ireland it is as yet unknown. 



On the Continent the northern limit of this species appears to 

 be the peninsula of Jutland, where it meets its close ally with nearly 

 white under parts, S. curopcea, which replaces 6*. acsia in Scandinavia, 

 Northern Russia and Siberia. From the Baltic southwards to the 

 Mediterranean and l>lack Seas, our species is generally distributed ; 

 Loche records it from Algeria and Capt. S. C. Reid from North- 

 western Morocco; and it has been obtained in Asia Minor and Pales- 

 tine. Eastward, it cannot with certainty be traced, owing to the 



