538 PASSERIFORMES CHAP. 



Nuthatches are quiet, non-migratory birds, which frequent 

 forests or open country with old timber, where they may be 

 seen darting quickly from tree to tree with undulating flight, or 

 creeping jerkily in Tit-like fashion up and down the trunks or 

 over rocks. They seldom seek their food upon the ground, but search 

 every cranny, and dig in rotten wood for insects, their larvae, and 

 so forth, or collect nuts, acorns, beech-mast, and seeds ; while the 

 nuts are cracked by fixing them in chinks and hammering them 

 with the whole weight of the body, which swings backwards and 

 forwards from the hip-joint. In winter they are exceedingly tame. 

 The spring call is a noisy, querulous " whit-whit," recalling that 

 of the Wryneck, but sibilant sounds and sweeter cries are not 

 uncommon, few persons being aware that the British species 

 (Sitta caesia) has at least four sets of notes, one of which i^ 

 very Thrush-like. Sitella has a weak, piping voice. In Eng- 

 land the nesting-cavity is usually chosen in a tree, but occasionally 

 in a wall, haystack, or the like ; this is commonly lined with 

 scales from conifer trunks, and the entrance blocked up with 

 a plaster of clay pierced by a round hole : abroad, however, holes 

 in rocks are often utilized, and nests made of moss, bark, hair, 

 and feathers. The Indian species do not always plaster up their 

 holes, and the American apparently never do so. Sitella forms a 

 curious funnel-shaped nest with a very thin rim, in forks or on 

 branches, using as materials bark, moss, down, cobwebs, and lichens, 

 the bark being applied externally like shingles. The three or four 

 greenish or bluish -white eggs, with blackish, grey, or lilac markings, 

 are very unlike those of Sitta, which are white, with fine pinkish- 

 red and lilac spots or blotches, and number from five to eight. 



Fam. XIX. Paridae. The Tits usually have a moderate and 

 slightly decurved bill, though it is elongated in Sphenostoma and 

 Certhiparus, abbreviated with roundish outline in Acredula, Psaltria, 

 and Psaltriparus, more pointed in Aegithalus and Auriparus ; the 

 maxilla having little trace of a notch, or the gape of bristles. The 

 metatarsi are short, except in Acredula, where the legs are longer 

 and the scales tend to fuse ; the robust front toes are partially 

 united, and possess strong claws. The wings are rounded and 

 abbreviated, especially in Aegithalus ; the tail varies considerably, 

 being short and nearly square in Parus, long and graduated in 

 Acredula and Psaltriparus, intermediate in Psaltria and Spheno- 

 stoma, and emarginate in Aegithalus. The nostrils, generally hidden 



