The Nuthatch. 39 



very short, the last longer. Besides these call notes 

 the bird sometimes makes a purring sort of sound, 

 resembling the syllable "tyrrh" repeated quickly 

 twice, and a third time prolonged. 



The nesting habits of the Nuthatch are peculiar 

 and interesting. It makes its nest in some natural 

 hole in a tree, but should the entrance to the cavity 

 prove larger than is required for ingress and egress, 

 or should there be an unevenness in it, the little 

 builder plasters it round with mud, and finishes it 

 off to the size required, for it never seems satisfied 

 until the entrance to its home is exactly round, and 

 only just large enough for it to enter. Its useful 

 beak thus forms a double tool a chopper and a 

 trowel! Like the swallow this bird uses the 

 mud when it is wet and sticky, and piece by 

 piece it is carried in the beak to the hole, where it 

 is carefully plastered to the wood, until at last the 

 task is done. When the mud becomes hard and dry 

 it is seen to be covered with minute holes the marks 

 of the bird's beak, showing with what care the work 

 has been accomplished. From this singular habit 

 of plastering the entrance to its nest with mud, the 

 bird has earned the name in some parts of the country 

 in the New Forest for instance of Mud-dabber. 



We have, in the plate at the beginning of this 

 chapter, a good example of such a plastered hole. 



