THE NUTHATCH'S FORCE 



is always so vigorous. He is one of the most force- 

 ful of all our small birds. The great titmouse has 

 power in the bill, but when engaged on a nutshell 

 he does not put the force into his blows that the 

 nuthatch will. When the nuthatch has a very hard 

 and seasoned shell to crack, he will raise himself and 

 bring his bill down on it with all the force that is in 

 him. A shower of these blows rained down on a 

 nut fixed in a crack of a dead oak limb makes a 

 sound that I have once or twice attributed at first 

 to the greater spotted or even the green woodpecker 

 indeed, the nuthatch's full blow, perhaps, does 

 make as much sound as the greater spotted wood- 

 pecker's. It is delightful to watch the stout-built, 

 muscular nuthatch, a pocket Hercules among 

 birds, hefting himself up, as our folk say, and 

 putting into the stroke every atom of force he has ; 

 shifting his position, too, after a series of blows on 

 one part of the nut, so that he can attack it at 

 another point. 



Just now the nuthatch is often seen exerting his 

 utmost power. But where does he find the nuts ? 

 The dead hazel leaves cover the remnant of last 

 autumn's slender harvest, and I can hardly believe 

 the nuthatch would find it profitable to search now 

 for nuts on the ground. In past years I have found 

 a number of nuts in a hole in a lime tree used at all 

 seasons by nuthatches a storehouse far too small 

 for the squirrel, and surely too high for any mouse. 

 It looks, then, as if the nuthatch were provident. 

 But I cannot prove it. The squirrel and the 



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