66 OUR RARER BIRDS 



strewn with the shells and husks which bear witness to the 

 little bird's industry. It may sometimes be seen on the 

 ground searching for fallen nuts and beech-mast, or to pick 

 up a nut that it may have dropped when busy cracking it. 



The Nuthatch, I am inclined to believe, pairs for life, and 

 yearly returns to its old nesting-place, showing great attach- 

 ment to it, and only forsaking it after continual and incessant 

 disturbance. It is a somewhat early breeder, putting its little 

 house in order by the third week in April. It makes its nest 

 in a hole in a tree or stump, at varying heights from the 

 ground and at different depths. Sometimes, but rarely, a hole 

 in a wall is selected. The entrance to the hole is generally 

 too large for the Nuthatches, who neatly plaster up the 

 opening with mud, and thus reduce the aperture to the size 

 they need. In most cases a hole is selected ready made, but 

 the birds frequently enlarge one till it is suited to their re- 

 quirements, or even bore into the soft decaying wood. At 

 the bottom of the hole a slight nest is formed of dry grass, 

 and mayhap a few dead leaves ; but sometimes even this is 

 dispensed with, and the eggs lie on a few bits of bark flake, 

 or even on the finely-powdered wood-dust. The eggs are from 

 five to eight in number, pure white in ground colour, spotted 

 and blotched with reddish-brown and gray. They vary con- 

 siderably in size, shape, and markings, but the eggs of a 

 clutch are usually pretty uniform in these respects. Some 

 eggs are minutely speckled over the entire surface ; others 

 are boldly blotched as well as finely marked, whilst on some 

 exceptionally handsome varieties the reddish-brown spots and 

 blotches are confined to a broad zone or circular patch on the 

 end of the egg. You may remove the eggs of the Nuthatch, 

 but others will be laid, and I have on several occasions taken 

 clutch after clutch from the same hole. The Nuthatch may 

 frequently rear more than one brood ,in the year, and gene- 

 rally lays again if the first lot of eggs be destroyed. 



