THE NUTHATCH 35 



worms, beetles, aphides, the larvae of various insects that infest 

 grass, cereals, root crops and other cultivated plants, and crus- 

 tacea. On opening the crop of a lapwing that had been shot it 

 was found to contain several wireworms, and it was calculated 

 that this bird, when living, would devour a hundred wireworms in 

 a day. For the services rendered to the grazier, farmer, and the 

 cultivator of the soil generally, the eggs of the peewit are collected 

 by the thousand to supply the great demand for them as luxuries 

 of diet. This is all the more deplorable as the peewits are pro- 

 tected in close time throughout Great Britain by the Wild Birds' 

 Protection Act of 1880, while the eggs are not protected by the 

 adoption of the Wild Birds' Protection Act of 1894 in every county 

 in England and Ireland as well as in a few counties in Scotland. 

 Thus the natural increase of peewits is largely interfered with, quite 

 apart from those killed for food, and the multiplication of pests 

 injurious to crops is the consequence. 



USEFUL AND PARTLY INJURIOUS 



The NUTHATCH (Sitta ccesia or europaa), Fig. 24, upper figure, 

 included in the Tenuirostres (slender billed) section of the order 

 Insessors or Perchers, forms a sub-family Sittinae, of the Certhidae 

 or Creepers. It averages about 5 in. in length, the body of 

 robust make, bluish-grey in colour in the upper portion, and light 

 reddish-yellow on the lower parts. The sides are brown, and the 

 throat and cheeks white. A black streak passes frcm the base 

 of the bill to the shoulders. The nest is constructed in the hole of 

 a tree, sometimes in a former habitation of the wocdpecker, and 

 h lined with oak-leaves, in which the female lays six or seven 

 eggs of a white colour spotted with brown. The birds defend their 

 nest vigorously, abiding by it in face of persecution. Indeed, 

 the nuthatch is fearless and assiduous in searching for prey in stems 

 and branches of trees, often head foremost when descending trunks. 

 They occur chiefly in pairs, agile and active. The female is not so 

 brilliant or definite in her colours as the male. The food consists 

 chiefly of insects and their larvae. Nuts cob, filbert, and hazel 

 also form part of the dietary, the bird, fixing the nuts in the crevices 

 of trees, opens them by repeated strokes of its bill. Acorns 

 and beech-mast are likewise appropriated. Nuthatches, generally 

 in solitary pairs, may occasionally be seen in the neighbourhood of 

 London. 



The REDBREAST or ROBIN REDBREAST (Erythacus rubecola) 

 belongs to the Dentirostral Insessors, and is included in the sub- 

 family Erythacinae or Robins, a sub-division of Sylviadae, or Warblers. 

 The red breast of the male is the distinguishing feature of these 

 bold and confident birds, so well known for associating closely 

 with mankind, especially in winter, the female having the breast 



