NUT-HATCH. 65 



quoted are instances of what I mean, and how often the words 

 "poor," "little/' "tiny," and even "dear," are joined to the 

 prefixes of Jenny, or Kitty, or Titty. Its little song, its seeming 

 incapacity to bear the rude buffets of storm and cold, its quiet 

 peculiar movements, all tend to commend it to our kindly notice. 

 And then the beautiful nest it makes such a great pile for such 

 a tiny builder and so compact and warm and wonderfully 

 concealed by the use of the nicest adaptations of materials ancl 

 design to the site selected, this makes us almost respectfully 

 admire, in addition to our love. I have found it on the moss- 

 covered bank, on the moss-covered trunk of a tree, in thatch, in 

 a haulm wall; but wherever it is found, the adjacent substances 

 are made to help the concealment. One would think that when 

 strength and ability, seemingly so inadequate, had been so 

 heavily tasked as is implied in the construction of such a nest, 

 the little birds would not be likely to leave it, especially with the 

 building of another in immediate prospect. But I have not 

 found it so in practice. A very trifling enlargement of the 

 single orifice, or straining of the fabric, in the effort to send the 

 finger to the bottom of the nest, is quite sufficient to cause the 

 nest to be deserted; especially if the Wrens owning it have 

 once or more been disturbed when in it, or very near it. When the 

 young ones are hatched, the case is altered. The eggs are often 

 from six to nine or ten in number, and I have heard of even 

 more. They are white, with almost always a few pale red spots 

 about them. The male is said to feed the female during the 

 period of closest incubation. Many other birds certainly have 

 the same habit, even when the mate has left the nest just to 

 stretch her wings, as it were. I have seen the Common Linnet 

 do this. Fig. 17, plate IV. 



132. HOOPOE. (Upupa epops.) 



A casual visitor only, but still not so rare that specimens are 

 not obtained almost every year. In fact, the whole appearance 

 of the bird is so verjr striking, that it is scarcely possible such a 

 visitor shoujd pass without notice. It breeds in several European 

 countries. 



133. NUT-HATCH. (Sitta Europcea) 



Nut -jobber, Wood-cracker. A very beautiful bird to my eye, 

 with his bright slate-coloured back, and orange breast, and black 

 bill ; and a very great pet in former days. I had a pair which 

 had never known a day of constraint, but which, by patient 

 feeding and care to make them fearless of me, became so tame 

 as almost to take food from my hand ; to take it readily when I 

 jerked it a foot or two into the air. And they would always 

 conic to my signal for them a few blows on the tree at which 



