i28 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



navian Nuthatch (Sitta europcea), a species which has the under- 

 parts white, and which ranges from Scandinavia and Northern 

 Russia, across Siberia to Japan and Kamtchatka. Gradual 

 variations in plumage occur throughout the range of the White- 

 breasted Nuthatches, which have been divided into several 

 races and species, but Mr. Seebohm affirms that intermediate 

 forms occur between all of them, not excepting Sitta europcca 

 and S. ccesia. 



Habits. These are a combination of the habits of a Tit 

 and a Woodpecker. Like the former bird, the Nuthatch 

 seeks diligently for its insect food on the trunks and branches 

 of trees, over which it runs like a Woodpecker, with this 

 difference, that its tail is not pressed into the service of climb- 

 ing a tree, nor does it gradually ascend from the bottom to the 

 top, as a Woodpecker so often does. On the contrary, a 

 Nuthatch will generally be found in the higher branches, and 

 will work its way from the end of the branch down towards 

 the trunk, and is just as much at home on the under side of 

 a limb as it is on the upper. Its movements are like those of 

 a Mouse, rather than those of a bird, and it often runs, head- 

 downward, or hangs on the under side of a branch and 

 hammers away at the bark with its powerful little bill. The 

 noise produced by one of these birds, when tapping at a tree, 

 is really astonishing for a bird of its size, and, if undisturbed, 

 it can be approached pretty closely. We have often watched 

 a Nuthatch at work, and the pieces of dead bark which the 

 bird prises off with its wedge-shaped bill, are sometimes as large 

 as the bird itself. Its general food consists of insects, and in 

 the winter the Nuthatches join the wandering parties of Tits 

 and Creepers which traverse the woods in search of food. As 

 a rule, however, the Nuthatch evinces a partiality for park-land 

 and old timber, and its cheerful note, often repeated as it runs 

 along a bough, sounds like " t'wee, t'wee, t'wee." It has also 

 a scolding note, or note of alarm, not unlike the churr of a 

 Warbler. In the autumn it feeds on hazel-nuts and beech- 

 mast, breaking them open by constant hammering, and, like 

 Tits, the Nuthatches can be tempted to the vicinity of houses 

 in winter, and become quite interesting by their lameness. 



Nest. The nesting commences in the middle of April, a 



