96 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 
once or more been disturbed when in it, or very nearit. When the 
young ones are hatched, the case is altered. The eggs are often 
from six to nine or ten in number, and I have heard of even 
more. They are white, with almost always a few pale red spots 
about them. The male is said to feed the female during the 
period of closest incubation. Many other birds certainly have 
*he same habit, even when the mate has left the nest just to 
stretch her wings, as it were. I have seen the Common Linnet 
do this.—Fvg. 17, plate IV. 
132. HOOPOE—(Upupa epops.) 
A casual visitor only, but still not so rare that specimens are 
not obtained almost every year. In fact, the whole appearance 
of the bird is so very striking, that it is scarcely possible such a 
visitor shouJd pass without notice. It breeds in several Huropean 
countries. 
133, NUT-HATCH—(Sitéa Europea). 
Nut-jobber, Wood-cracker.—A very beautiful bird to my eye, 
with his bright slate-coloured back, and orange breast, and black 
bill; and a very great pet in former days. I hada pair which 
had never known a day of constraint, but which, by patient 
feeding and care to make them fearless of me, became so tame 
as almost to take food from my hand; to take it readily when I 
jerked it a foot or two into the air. And they would always 
come to my signal for them—a few blows on the tree at which 
I fed them. But they never suffered their young to come to the 
feast I provided, and always absented themselves for about a 
month at the breeding time. The nest is, I believe, always made 
in the hole of a tree, and if the aperture to the hollow is too 
large, the bird is apt to lessen it by the application of a 
sort of mud-plaster to some portions of the edge. The nest is 
