NUTHATCHES. 



67 



LESSON V. 



FATVIILY OF ENUIROSTRES. Nuthatches. Creepers. Humming 



Birds. 



FAMILY OF SYNDACTYL.E. Bee-eaters Kingfishers. Hornbills. 

 ORDER OF SCANSORI^E. Zoological Characters Woodpeckers. 



Wrynecks. Cvckoos. Toucans. 1'arrots. Habits, (Mac- 



caws, Paioquets, P an ots properly so called) 



FAMILY OF TENUIROSTRES. 



1. Birds of this family have a slender, elongated beak without 

 a notch, and which is sometimes straight, and sometimes arcuate. 

 (Plate 3, fig. 11.) The principal genera of this family are the 

 Nuthatches, Creepers, Humming-birds, and Hoopoes, which may 

 be recognised by the following characters: 



(Genera.) 



C Straight, .... J> NUTHATCHES. 

 Moderate, and < 



( Arcuate, .... ^CREEPERS. 



TENUIROSTRES, , 

 having the - 

 beak 



Very long and 

 very slender, tongue 



HUMMING-BIRDS. 



extensib!e - 

 Short, and 



the throat 



2. The Nuthatches, Sitta, have a moderate, straight, 

 depressed beak, which is cylindrical, conical, and trenchant at 

 the point ; their nostrils are partly covered by hairs directed for- 

 wards, and their tongue is short and very slightly protractile. 

 They climb with agility in all directions, live on insects and 

 nestle in the trunks of trees. The Common European Nuthatch, 

 Silta Europaas is of a bluish ash-colour. It is sedentary, 

 and inhabits the lofty forests. The male joins the female in the 

 spring, in constructing the nest ; they establish themselves in a 

 hole in a tree, and if the hole is too large, they reduce it with 

 mud, which circumstance has acquired for it the name of 

 Mason-pie; they line the interior with a thin bed of moss, upon 

 which the female lays from five to seven grayish eggs, marked 



1. What are the characters of birds of the family of Tenuirostres? 

 What are the principal genera of this family? 



2. What are the characters of the Nuthatches ? What are the liabits 

 of the common European Nuthatch ? Upon what docs it feed ? 



6* 



