NATURAL HISTORY. 255 



From purple violets, and the teile they bring 



Their gather'd sweets, and rifle all the spring." ADDISON. 



781. frging by their feet, and resting upon the stiff quills of their tails, they 

 will even pass round a horizontal branch with their backs to the ground. This is 

 of importance to the bird, since many of the insects forming its food often seek 

 the under surface of a branch for security. 



732. Why his the nuthatch, whose ttabits so closely resemble 

 the woodpecker, only a very short tail ? 



Unlike the woodpecker, the nuthatch runs with the head down- 

 wards as well as upwards ; and, indeed, the former position of the 

 head appears to be the favourite one : it generally alights on a 

 branch with the head in a downward position, and sleeps in that 

 posture. A long tail, therefore, would be useless to it, and an 

 incumbrance. 



783. The nuthatch, in procuring its food, sometimes grasps the tree with his 

 powerful feet, and turns its body upon them as upon a pivot, striking with its 

 whole weight, and thus presenting with its body the appearance of the head of a 

 hammer in motion. 



784. Why does the nuthatch make its nest in the decayed 

 trunks of trees? 



In order that the young may subsist upon the insects that 

 inhabit the decayed wood that surrounds the nest. 



785. Why is the rifle-bird so catted? 



From the dark tints of its plumage a bottle-green approaching 

 to black and its habit of creeping upon the boles of trees, after 

 the manner of a sharpshooter. 



786. Mr. Gould, the Australian naturalist, considers the rifle-bird the most 

 pcrgeously-plumed of all the birds of that region. The general colour of the mnle 

 is a rich velvety black, varied with lilac and green. The female is less handsomely 

 furnished. The rifle-bird's powers of flight are very limited, owing to the 

 shortness and truncated form of the wing ; but this structure enables it to ascend 

 upright stems of trees precisely after the manner of the cUmacteri, many of 

 whose habits it possesses. 



787. Why is the hoopoe so named ? 



From its uttering the song or cry of hoop, hoop, hoop, as it sits 

 perched by its nest, or flits along after its insect prey. 



