86 THE NUTHATCH. 



In the house it must be kept in a cage made entirely of wire, as wood 

 cannot resist the strength of its beak *. 



FOOD. In its wild state it lives on insects, which it seeks for in the 

 trees, being able to cling to and run about the branches in any way : it 

 also eats nuts and beech mast, which it skilfully fixes in the chinks of the 

 trees, that it may crack them more easily. 



In the house, it may be fed on hemp seed, oats, barley meal, or even 

 bread. The way in which it crushes the hemp seed and oats is very 

 curious ; it takes as many as it can in its beak, and ranges them in order 

 in the cracks of the floor, always taking care to put the large end lowest, 

 that it may break them more easily ; it then begins to despatch them one 

 after another with the greatest skill and agility. 



The lady who has been occasionally mentioned in the introduction, 

 amused herself in the winter, and particularly when the snow was on the 

 ground, with throwing, several times a day, different kinds of seeds on the 

 terrace below the window, in order to feed the birds in the neighbourhood. 

 These soon became accustomed to this distribution, and arrived in crowds 

 when they heard the clapping of hands, which was the signal used to call 

 them. She put some hemp seed and cracked nuts even on the window- 

 sill, and on a board, particularly for her favourites, the blue tits. Two 

 nuthatches came one day to have their snare in this repast, and were so 

 well pleased that they became quite familiar, and did not even go away in 

 the following spring, to get their natural food and to build their nest in 

 the wood. They settled themselves in the hollow of an old tree near the 

 houge ; as soon as the two young ones, which they reared here, were able 

 to fly, they brought them to the hospitable window where they were to be 

 nourished, and soon after disappeared entirely. It was very amusing to see 

 these two new visiters hang or climb on the wall or blinds, whilst their 

 benefactress put their food on the board. These pretty creatures, as well 

 as the tits, knew her so well, that when she drove away the sparrows which 



* A bird of this species, which had been accidentally winged by a sportsman, 

 was kept in a small cage of plain oak wood and wire. During a night and a day 

 that his confinement lasted, his tapping labour was incessant ; and after occupying 

 his prison for that short space, he left the wood-work pierced and worn like worm- 

 eaten timber. His impatience at his situation was excessive ; his efforts to escape 

 were unremitted, and displayed much intelligence and cunning. He was fierce, 

 fearlessly familiar, and voracious of the food placed before him. At the close of 

 the second day he sunk under the combined effects of his vexation, assiduity, and 

 voracity. His hammering was peculiarly laborious, for he did not peck as other 

 birds do, but grasping hold with his immense feet, he turned upon them as a pivot, 

 and struck with the whole weight of his body, thus assuming the appearance, with 

 his entire form, of the head of a hammer, or, as birds may sometimes be seen to 

 do on mechanical clocks, made to strike the hour by swinging on a wheel. The 

 Rev. W. T. Bree, of Allesley, says, that having caught a nuthatch in the common 

 brick trap used by boys, he was struck with the singular appearance of its bill, so 

 unlike that of any bird he had ever seen. It was blunt at the end, and presented 

 the appearance of having been truncated in an oblique direction, as if the natural 

 beak had been cut off. He naturally inferred that it had been fairly ground down 

 to about two-thirds of its original length, by the bird's pecking at the bricks, in its 

 efforts to escape from the trap. TRANSLATOR. 



