THE NUTHATCH 217 



rark nuts they will return to it again and again, just as a song-thrush 

 will immolate scores of snails on the same altar-stone. Large quanti- 

 ties of broken nut-shells found near these plaees may ha\e ^i\m n-.- 

 to the idea that nuthatches store food like squirrels. Personally I do 

 not think that such a happy-go-lucky bird even takes much thought 

 for the morrow. But the Rev. M. C. H. Bird tells me that he has seen 

 these birds, when supplied with food during the winter, fly off' with 

 nuts and lodge them one after another in crevices of elm bark. Other 

 observers have also noted the same thing. 



Nuthatches are very fond of suet in cold weather ; and, like titmice, 

 ma\ easjlx he attracted to gardens by dainty morsels of various kinds, 

 for they are practically omnivorous. In very hard weather they 

 frequent farmyards, and pick up unconsidered trifles. 



I have known men, ignorant of their habits, shoot these birds 

 mercilessly for destroying rosebuds ; whereas the nuthatch is actually 

 rendering the rose-grower excellent service by ridding his plants of 

 aphis. Another frequenter of rose-bushes the goldcrest is rewarded 

 in the same way for his useful toil. 



" Alas 1 I then have chid away my friend," 



would be a fitting epitaph for these martyrs. 



About February the male bird begins to utter the long challenging 

 whistle, so like an impatient summons to a dog, that marks the turn- 

 ing of his thoughts to love and war ; for both these games are played 

 in the same high-handed way in which he makes raids upon his 

 defenceless prey. 



Curiously enough, when returning home one February morning 

 after having written thus far out in the woods, three nuthatches fell 

 into the road almost at my feet. Two of them I took to be males as 

 they were engaged in a beak-and-claw encounter; while the third, 

 obviously a female, stood by behaving with that decorum and appar- 

 ent indifference to the result characteristic of hen-birds bred in the 

 best traditions of Avian society. As soon as the tussle was ended, 



