194 IN THE GREEN LEAF 



you stand quietly by any hazel hedge, you may 

 hear this active bird hunting for the last nuts 

 that have fallen and got covered with leaves. 



Old gates are numerous in pasture fields that 

 are bounded by the hazel hedges, and the gate 

 posts are of oak. Now, all old oak posts have 

 weather cracks on the top of them, of various 

 widths and depths. The nuthatch looks out for 

 one that will suit his purpose, and carries his nuts 

 there. He is never deceived by a bad kernel ; he 

 fits his nuts in the crack as though in a vice- 

 there is not the least fear of its falling out plants 

 himself firmly in front of it, and digs away in the 

 most determined manner. The shell is soon 

 broken up, and the bird has his well-earned food. 

 Sometimes the nuthatch works away at his nut, 

 cracking until the "dims" come on. 



At the foot of the post, if you look, you 

 may see a small handful of broken nut shells, 

 when the post has been used for any time. 

 The woodpeckers, the pied and the green, fre- 

 quent the ground more or less as the season 

 comes round. 



Many forms of insect life, mature or imma- 

 ture, are in the ground ; and the woodpecker 

 family, with their pick-axe bills, are the very 

 birds to dig that insect life out of it, and 



