NUTHATCHES. 67 



LESSON V. 



FAMILY OF ENUIROSTRES, Nuthatches. Creepers. Humming 

 Birds. 



FAMILY OF SYNDACTYLJE. Bee-eaters Kingfisher*. Horubills. 



ORDER OF SCANSORI^E Zoological Characters Woodpeckers. 

 Wrynecks. ( uc/toos. Toucans. Parrots. Habits, {Mac- 

 caws, Paioquets, P an ots properly so called) 



FAMILY OF TENUIROSTRES. 



1. Birds of this family have a slender, elongated beak without 

 a notch, and which is sometimes straight, and sometimes arcuate. 

 (Plate 3, Jig. 11.) The principal genera of this family are the 

 Nuthatches, Creepers, Humming-birds, and Hoopoes, which may 

 be recognised by the following characters : 



(Genera.) 



^Straight, .... )> NUTHATCHES. 

 Moderate, and < 



/ Arcaatc, .... ^CREEPERS. 



TENUIROSTRES, 



f Very long, 



extensible. 

 Very long and J 



very slender, tongue j Short, and "^ 



lying close at l Hoopos . 



the bottom of 

 t the throat j 



2. The Nuthatches, Sitta, have a moderate, straight, 

 depressed beak, which is cylindrical, conical, and trenchant at 

 the point; their nostrils are partly covered by hairs directed for- 

 wards, and their tongue is short and very slightly protractile. 

 They climb with agility in all directions, live on insects and 

 nestle in the trunks of trees. The Common European Nuthatch, 

 Sit ta Einopaa, is of a bluish ash-colour. It is sedentary, 

 and inhabits the lofty forests The male joins the female in the 

 spring, in constructing the nest ; they establish themselves in a 

 hole in a tree, and if the hole is too large, they reduce it with 

 mud, which circumstance has acquired for it the name of 

 Mason-pie; they line the interior with a thin bed of moss, upon 

 which the female lays from five to seven grayish eggs, marked 



1. What are the characters of birds of the family of Tenuirostres? 

 tVhat are ihe principal gentra of this family ? 



2. What are the characters of the Nuthatches ? What are the habif* 

 of the common European Nuthatch ? Upon what docs jt feed / 



