NUTHATCH. 



N UTJ OBBER. WOODCK AC KEB. 



Sltta Europaa, PENNANT. MONTAOI:. 



Sitta ? Europaa European . 



THE vernacular name of this bird, as descriptive of its habit 

 of hacking and hewing at the nuts, which furnish it with 

 food, is derived from some primitive word, the original likewise 

 of the word hatchet, as is its second name of Nutjobber, from 

 another root of the like import. 



The temperate regions are the home of the Nuthatch: it 

 occurs in the central and more northern parts of Europe and 

 Asia in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, and France. 



In this country it is but sparingly distributed, though it 

 by no means ranks with very rare birds. In Yorkshire, it 

 breeds in Castle Howard Park, the stately avenues of beech 

 trees there being exactly to its taste. It is also met with 

 at Seacroft, near Leeds; about Harewood Bridge and Park; 

 in the neighbourhood of Sheffield, Doncaster, and Barnsley; 

 in Stainborough woods, and those of Wentworth Castle, the 

 splendid seat of Thomas Frederick Yernon Wentworth, Esq. 

 I have seen it in Dorsetshire, in the parish of Glanville's 

 Wootton. It is pretty common, as W. F. W. Bird, Esq. 

 informs me, in Kensington Gardens, near London. 



In Ireland and Scotland it appears to be unknown. 



In the winter, the Nuthatch leaves the woods for less dreary 

 situations, and is then not unfrequently found in orchards 

 and gardens, but it resides with us throughout the year. 



More than two or three of these birds are not oiten seen 

 together, except indeed while the parents and the young are 

 kept together by the family tie. They are easily tamed, and 



