THE NUTHATCHES 1613 



in search of food. It never climbs, and is solitary in its habits, seldom more than 

 two being seen together. Its oft-repeated cry of cri, cri, cri, crite, betrays its pres- 

 ence, when its native haunts, the most retired forests, are visited. Its food consists 

 of insects and wood bugs. The eggs are white and large in proportion to the size 

 of the bird. The situation of the nest is the side of a slanting rock, the entrance 

 being level with the surface. The adult male has the head and upper parts reddish 

 brown; the wings are brown, the coverts largely tipped with gray; the primaries are 

 crossed with gray at the base; the tips of the secondaries are tipped with dark brown- 

 ish gray; the tail is dark brown; the sides of the head and neck are dark gray; the 

 throat and chest white, separated from the gray of the sides of the neck by a lunar- 

 shaped mark of deep black; and the flanks and under tail coverts gray, stained with 

 reddish brown. The female differs from her mate, in having the throat rich rusty 

 red instead of white. 



THE NUTHATCHES 

 Family SlTTlD^ft 



Regarded by Dr. Sharpe as inseparable from the creepers, the nuthatches are 

 retained as a distinct family by Mr. Gates, who considers them to be most nearly 

 related to the Crateropodidce . These birds have the edges of both mandibles smooth, 

 or the upper one slightly notched; the hinder surface of the metatarsus is smooth, 

 and covered with two entire longitudinal plates; the wing has ten primaries; the 

 nostrils are clear of the line of the forehead, and overhung by some hair; bristles are 

 present at the rictus of the gape; there are twelve tail feathers; and the first and 

 second toes are of very unequal lengths. In all the group there is but one annual 

 molt, and the plumage of the nestling resembles that of the female; while in most 

 cases the coloration of the plumage is different in the two sexes. With the excep- 

 tion of South America and Africa south of the Sahara, nuthatches are pretty gener- 

 ally distributed, extending to Australasia. They are small climbing birds, with the 

 first toe greatly developed, and the second proportionately shortened; and feed both 

 on insects and nuts. Resident in their habits they nest in the holes of trees or the 

 crevices of rocks, very generally reducing the size of the aperture of the hole by 

 building it up with mud. In addition to the type genus, the family is represented 

 by the Australian genus Sitella, and likewise by a third known as Hypositta. 



Abundant in many parts of Central and Southern Europe, as it is in 



Nuthatch England, * n tne spring of the year the common nuthatch (Sitta c<zsia) 



invariably indicates its whereabouts by its merry call note, which 



rings far and wide through the beech woods, which the bird chiefly frequents. 



The nuthatch pairs at the close of winter, and chooses for its nesting site a hole 



in some hollow tree, plastering up the entrance with clay, and only leaving a small 



orifice through which the birds pass into the nest; the interior of the nest being 



lined with dry beech leaves. The eggs are white, spotted with bright red; and, 



when the young are fledged, they live for a time with their parents, but soon become 



