THE NUT-HATCH. 199 



Habits Mode of eating the nuts. 



one very strong. The toes arc placed three for- 

 ward and one backward ; the middle toe joined 

 closely at the base to both the outer and the 

 back toe as large as the middle one. 



This bird is shy and solitary, frequenting the 

 woods, and running up and down the trees. It 

 often moves its tail like the wagtail. The man- 

 ners of all the other species very nearly corres- 

 pond with those of the European nut-hatch; 

 most of them feed on insects, and some of them 

 on hazel-nuts. This bird, indeed, the squirrel, 

 and the field-mouse, which live much on hazel- 

 nuts, have each a very curious way of getting at 

 the kernel. Of the two latter, the squirrel, after 

 rasping off the small end, splits the shell in two 

 with his long fore- teeth, as a man does with 

 his knife; the field-mouse nibbles a hole with 

 his teeth, as regular as if drilled with a whimble, 

 and yet so small that one would wonder how the 

 kernel could be extracted through it; while the 

 nut-hatch picks an irregular ragged hole with 

 his bill ; but as this last artist has no paws to 

 hold the nut firm while he pierces it, he, like an 

 adroit workman, fixes it as it were in a vice, in 

 $ome cleft of a tree, or in some crevice ; when, 

 standing over it, he perforates the stubborn shell. 

 On placing nuts in the chink of a gate-post 

 where nut-hatches have been known to haunt, it 

 has always been found that these birds have 

 readily penetrated them. While at work, they 

 make a rapping noise that may be heard at a 



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