54 WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 



ing round, he again mounts, with fresh activity, piping his uni- 

 sons as before. Strongly attached to his native forests, he sel- 

 dom forsakes them; and amidst the rigours of the severest win- 

 ter weather, his note is still heard in the bleak and leafless woods, 

 and among the howling branches. Sometimes the rain, freezing 

 as it falls, encloses every twig, and even the trunk of the tree, 

 in a hard transparent coat or shell of ice. On these occasions, I 

 have observed his anxiety and dissatisfaction, at being with dif- 

 ficulty able to make his way along the smooth surface; at these 

 times generally abandoning the trees, gleaning about the stables 

 around the house, mixing among the fowls, entering the barn, 

 and examining the beams and rafters, and every place where he 

 may pick up a subsistence. 



The name Nuthatch has been bestowed on this family of birds 

 from their supposed practice of breaking nuts by repeated hatch- 

 ings, or hammerings with their bills. Soft-shelled nuts, such as 

 chestnuts, chinkopins, and hazel-nuts, they may probably be 

 able to demolish, though I have never yet seen them so engaged; 

 but it must be rather in search of maggots that sometimes breed 

 there, than for the kernel. It is however said that they lay up 

 a large store of nuts for winter; but as I have never either found 

 any of their magazines, or seen them collecting them, I am in- 

 clined to doubt the fact From the great numbers I have opened 

 at all seasons of the year, I have every reason to believe that 

 ants, small seeds, insects and their larvae, form their chief sub- 

 sistence, such matters alone being uniformly found in their sto- 

 machs. Neither can I see what necessity they could have to 

 circumambulate the trunks of trees, with such indefatigable and 

 restless diligence, while bushels of nuts lay scattered round their 

 roots. As to the circumstance mentioned by Dr. Plott, of the 

 European Nuthatch " putting its bill into a crack in the bough 

 of a tree, and making such a violent sound, as if it was rending 

 asunder," this, if true, would be sufficient to distinguish it from 

 the species we have been just describing, which possesses no 

 such faculty. The female differs little from the male in colour, 

 chiefly in the black being less deep on the head and wings. 



