1614 



THE PERCHING BIRDS 



NUTHATCH. 



independent, and rove through the woods in company with tits and other small birds. 

 If a nuthatch be watched, it will be found that it sometimes perches across a bough 

 like any little singing bird; but when feeding it generally runs up and down the 



trunk of old trees something like 

 a woodpecker. The call note of 

 the nuthatch is a loud twet twet, 

 which may be compared to the 

 words fetch it, fetch it, but this 

 cry must not be confused with 

 the spring whistle of the male. 

 If encouraged it becomes a tame 

 and confiding bird, laying aside 

 much of its fear of man, and 

 readily learning to avail itself 

 of the resources of civilization. 

 In winter, especially, the nut- 

 hatch approaches dwelling 

 houses, and willingly partakes of 

 scraps of food with tits. During 

 the summer it feeds chiefly upon 

 insects, but in autumn subsists 

 more upon nuts and beech 



mast. Few sights are prettier than to watch a nuthatch opening nuts; the bird 

 swinging its body freely forward as it brings down its long bill with accuracy on the 

 right part of the shell. Nuthatches have rather a habit of entering houses through 

 open windows, probably out of curiosity; and we owed to this habit a pet nuthatch, 

 which became extremely tame, and used to take flies from our finger. They are 

 decidedly pugnacious, and if two males are placed in the same cage in the breeding 

 season, the probability is that the stronger bird will kill his rival. The devotion 

 which paired birds show to one another is a marked trait in the character of the 

 nuthatch. Once we saw a great deal of a pair of nuthatches which used to flit about 

 the apple trees in a garden at Montreux, and we noticed the fearless way in which 

 they foraged for food among the dead leaves, often approaching close to us with im- 

 perturbable confidence. The adult male has the upper parts slaty blue; a black line 

 passes from the base of the bill through the eye to the nape; the wings and tail are 

 slaty blue, the outer tail feathers showing, when open, white edges; the flanks are 

 bright chestnut red; and the lower parts buffy white. A variety with a black throat 

 and crown has been recorded. 



The Syrian nuthatch (S. neumayeri) might more properly be called 

 the rock nuthatch, for its habits in Southern Europe differ in a very 

 remarkable way from those of its congeners; this nuthatch building its 

 nest of earth, small stones, etc., and placing it upon the face of a rock, and construct- 

 ing a round, funnel-shaped entrance, an inch or more in length. Mr. Seebohm, 

 who found this nuthatch building in the crags near Smyrna, gives the following 

 account of its nidification: "The nest of this bird is a very curious structure. A 



Syrian 



Nuthatch 



