THE NUTHATCH. ' 63 



Turtle-dove ? Turtur aldrovandi ? 



Grasshopper lark, Alauda trmialis. 



Landrail, Rallus crex. 



Largest willow-wren, Motadlla trocMlus. 



Redstart, Motadlla phoenicurus*. 



Goatsucker, or fern-owl, Caprimulgus europceus. 



Fly-catcher, Muscicapa grisola. 



My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a 

 clatter with its hill against a dead bough, or some 

 old pales, calling it a jar-bird. I procured one to be 

 shot in the very fact ; it proved to be the sitta euro- 

 pcea (the nuthatch). Mr. Ray says, that the less 

 spotted woodpecker does the same. This noise may 

 be heard a furlong or more.* 



* The nuthatch, sitta europcea^ Linn., is the only species 

 of the genus inhabiting Europe; in this country it appears 

 confined to England, never having been traced farther north 

 than Northumberland. The following animated sketch, a 

 good deal in the style of our author, I have extracted from 

 Loudon's Journal of Natural History, as giving a correct idea 

 of the manners of this curious species : " I had never seen 

 the little bird called the nuthatch, when one day, whilst I was 

 expecting the transit of some wood-pigeons under a birch 

 tree, with my gun in my hand, I observed a little ash-coloured 

 bird squat himself on one of the large lateral trunks over my 

 head, and after some observation, begin to tap loudly, or rather 

 solidly upon the wood, and then proceed round and round the 

 branch, it being clearly the same thing to him whether his 

 nadir or zenith were uppermost. I shot, and the bird fell; 

 there was a lofty hedge between us, and when I got over, he 

 had removed himself. It was some time before I secured 

 him ; and I mention this, because the manner in which he 

 eluded me was characteristic of his cunning. He concealed 

 himself in holes at the bottom of a ditch, so long as he heard 

 the noise of motion; and when all was still, he would scud 

 out and attempt to escape. A wing was broken, and I at 

 length got hold of him. He proved small, but very fierce, 

 and his bite would have made a child cry out. The elbow 

 joint of his wing being thoroughly shattered, and finding that 

 he had no other wound, I cut off the dangling limb, and put 



