96 FASSERES. 



ascent. The note of the creeper is weak and monotonous, and is frequently- 

 repeated, especially during its flight from tree to tree or while it remains sta- 

 tionary. This interesting little creature, one of the smallest of our native birds, 

 breeds early in the spring ; its nest is placed in the hole of some decayed tree, 

 and is composed of dried grass and fibres of bark lined with feathers. The 

 eggs are from seven to nine in number, ash-coloured, with dusky spots. 



Sub-Family V. 



THE NUTHATCHES. SITTIN^E. 



General Characteristics. — Toes slender, with the outer toe shorter than the middle 

 one, and united at the base to the first joint, the inner toe shorter than the outer one, 

 and slightly united at the base. 



The Nuthatches are found throughout Europe and North 

 America, and some species have been met with in various parts 

 of India and the adjacent islands. They prefer forests and dense 

 woods, where they may be seen moving rapidly about on the trunks 

 of trees, running both upwards and downwards in a spiral direc- 

 tion, or creeping round the small branches, probing into the cracks, 

 and occasionally removing pieces of the bark in search of spiders 

 and insects. In severe weather they sometimes approach the dwell- 

 ings of man, when they do not refuse to feed upon grain. The seeds 

 of the pine-cone and the kernels of filberts and hazel-nuts also 

 form a portion of their subsistence. These latter they break by 

 placing the nut in a chink, and striking it with their bill until they 

 have made a hole in the shell sufficiently large to enable them to 

 get at the kernel. They deposit their eggs in the hole of a tree, 

 or in the deserted nest of a woodpecker, upon a small collection 

 of dead leaves, principally those of the oak. 



The type of the race — 



The European Nuthatch [Sitta Europcca) has a stouter and straighter 

 bill than the generality of the creepers.^ It is a small bird, measuring little 

 more than five inches and a half in length, and is common in many parts of 

 Europe, especially in the south. With us it is constantly in motion, flying from 

 tree to tree, and traveUing round the thick branches, or about the gnarled and 

 rugged bark, surrounding holes formed by decay, ever and anon uttering a 

 clear whistling note. It lives principally upon insects, but, at the proper 

 season, nuts likewise form a portion of its diet, and the strokes made by the 

 bird, while endeavouring to extract the kernel, may be heard at a considerable 

 distance. It fixes them in some chink or cleft, and splits the shell with repeated 

 blows of its strong beak. Mr. Selby says that in autumn many of these broken 

 nut-shells may be seen stuck in the bark of old trees, in districts where these 



