164 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



FAMILY SITTIM. 



THIS group is represented in Great Britain by only one species, which Seebohm 

 regarded merely as an aberrant genus of Tits ; but he stated rightly, that 

 " In their habits they resemble the Woodpeckers and the Creepers more than the 

 true Tits." Nevertheless in their activity and many of their actions Nuthatches are 

 very Tit-like : so also, in the strength of their bills and feet, the position and 

 covering of the nostrils, their short first primary, scutellated tarsi and hooked 

 hind-claw, they show Paritie affinities, whilst their eggs are extremely Tit-like in 

 character. 



Our Nuthatch, though it approaches the Titmice, could never be confounded 

 with them ; it has more nearly the aspect of a dull washed-out Liothrix, yet with 

 a little longer bill : it seems therefore far better to follow Howard Saunders, and 

 regard it as the representation of a distinct, though allied, family. In one respect 

 it differs very widely from the Tits in habits, and that is in its use of clay to 

 lessen the size of a hole containing its nest, and the very meagre character of the 

 nest itself. 



In Vol. VIII of the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," Dr. Gadow 

 regards the Nuthatches as a Subfamily of the Creepers (CerthiidccJ , practically 

 ignoring the affinity of the former to the Titmice ; but, apart from the total 

 dissimilarity in the bills of the Creepers and Nuthatches, the latter are decidedly 

 less insectivorous, and their manner of sitting across a branch to crack a nut, is 

 infinitely more suggestive of a Tit than a Creeper ; whilst their softer shorter tails, 

 stouter legs, and the character of their nostrils, serve at once to distinguish them 

 from the Certhiidcc. 



As a student of Bird-life, rather than of Bird-mummies, the convenience of a 

 distinct family for the Nuthatch commends itself to the writer. 



