PASSERINE. TENUIROSTRES. 279 



on these he spent his most elaborate taps, and at 

 this moment, though he only occupied the cage a 

 day, the wood is pierced and worn like a piece of 

 old worm-eaten timber. He probably had an idea, 

 that if these main beams could once be penetrated, 

 the rest of the superstructure would fall and free 

 him. Against the doorway he had also a particular 

 spite, and once succeeded in opening it ; and when, 

 to interpose a further obstacle, it was tied in a 

 double knot with a string, the perpetual application 

 of his beak quickly unloosed it. In ordinary cages, 

 a circular hole is left in the wire for the bird to in- 

 sert his head to drink from a glass ; to this hole the 

 Nuthatch constantly repaired, not for the purpose of 

 drinking, but to try to push out more than his head, 

 but in vain, for he is a thick bird, and rather heavily 

 built ; but the instant he found the hole too small, 

 he would withdraw his head, and begin to dig and 

 hammer at the circle, where it is rooted in the wood, 

 with his pickaxe of a beak, evidently with a design 

 to enlarge the orifice. His labour was incessant, 

 and he ate as largely as he worked ; I fear it was 

 the united effects of both that killed him. His ham- 

 mering was peculiarly laborious, for he did not peck 

 as other birds do, but grasping his hold with his 

 immense feet, he turned upon them as upon a pivot, 

 and struck with the whole weight of his body, thus 

 assuming the appearance, with his entire form, of 

 the head of a hammer ; or, as I have sometimes 

 seen birds in mechanical clocks, made to strike the 

 hour by swinging on a wheel. We were in hopes 



