NUTHATCH. 523 



SITTA C^SIA. 

 NUTHATCH. 



(PLATE 12.) 



.sitta. Eri*s. Orn. iii. p. 588 (1760). 

 Sitta cjesia, Wolf, Tatchenb. i. p. 123 (1810) ; et auctorum plurimorum Gray, 



Bunaparte, Degland, Gerbe, Neuton, Dresser, &e. 

 Sitta afSuis, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xv. p. 288 (1846). 

 Sitta europsea, Linn, aptid Latham, Montagu, MacgMitray, Bewick, Fleming, Gould, 



fte. 



In the southern and central counties of England the Nuthatch is a 

 common and fairly well-known bird; but it becomes much rarer and 

 more local in the northern counties. It breeds, however, sparingly, 

 even in the extreme north of England. In Scotland it is very rare ; 

 Mr. Gray only mentions three instances of its recent occurrence there : 

 one, killed in a garden near Duuse in Berwickshire in 1856; another, shot 

 in the summer of 1865 near Hermiston in Haddingtonshire ; and a third, 

 shot at Bressay in Shetland in 1867. The bird appears not to have hitherto 

 been noticed in Ireland. 



The Nuthatches which are the most closely allied to that found in the 

 British Islands may be distinguished from the numerous other species in 

 the genus by the colour of the under tail-coverts, which are white broadly 

 margined on the basal half of each feather with rich chestnut. They are 

 found in most parts of Europe and Asia. In such a large area they are 

 subject to different influences of food and climate. Their enemies are 

 probably more numerous and more important in some localities, and the 

 necessity of their assuming protective tints in the colour of their plumage 

 may consequently be more imperative ; and the difference in the prevailing 

 colour of their surroundings may cause a similar variation in the tints 

 which are protective. The effects of these influences are intensified by the 

 habits of the birds. They probably pair for life, and are generally seen in 

 winter in pairs, which attach themselves to a gipsy-party of Tits and other 

 birds, in whose company they search for food. Though they may cover a 

 great deal of ground in the course of the winter, they probably never 

 wander very far from home, and thus miss those opportunities for inter- 

 marriage with individuals of their own species from distant breeding- 

 grounds that migratory birds, which meet in common winter-quarters and 

 choose a fresh mate every spring, enjoy. 



The British Nuthatch is undistinguishable from the Nuthatches which 

 inhabit Central and Southern Europe, whose range extends to the south as 

 far as Algeria and to the east as far as Asia Minor and West Persia. In 

 Scandinavia and West Russia the Nuthatches have almost lost the pale 



