Biiiua. 185 



ivhicli niiikes two sides of their little habitation ; while the other 

 two are artificially composed by their own industry. But these, 

 and all of the kind, are built with the same precautions to guard 

 the young against the depredations of monkeys and serpents, 

 which abound in every tree. The nest hangs there before the 

 spoilers, a tempting object, which they can only gaze upon, 

 while the bird flies in and out, without danger or molestation 

 from so formidable a vicinity.* 



* Of the nut-hatch tribe in general The cliaracters of tliis tribe .iro, a 

 bill for the most part straight, having on the lower mandible a small angle : 

 small nostrils, covered with bristles : a short tongue, horny at the end, and 

 jiigged : toes placed three forwards, and one backwards; the middle toe 

 joined closely at the base to both the outer, and the back toe a^i large as the 

 middle one. 



In the habits and manners of the different species of the nut-hatch, yve ob- 

 serve a \t}T\ close alliance to the woodpeckers. Most of them feed upon 

 insects ; and some ou nuts, whence their English appellation has been ac- 

 quired. 



The European Nut.hatch. The length of tliis bird is five inches and three 

 quarters. The bill is strong and straight, about three quarters of an inch 

 long ; the upper mandible is black, and the lower white. All the upper 

 part of the body are of a bluish grey : the cheeks and chin are white : the 

 breast and belly pale orange colour ; and the quills dusky : the tail is short, 

 and consists of twelve feathers ; the two middle ones of which are grey, the 

 two outer spotted with white, and the rest dusky. The legs are pale yel- 

 low ; the claws are large, and the back one very strong. 



The nut-hatch, the squirrel, and the field-mouse, which all live much on 

 hazel nuts, have each a curious way of getting at the kernel. Of the two 

 latter, the squirrel, after rasping off the small end, splits the shell in two 

 with his long fore-teeth, as a man does with his knife ; the field-mouse nib. 

 bles a hole with his teeth, as regular as if drilled with a wimble, and yet so 

 small that one would wonder how the kernel could be extracted through 

 It ; while the nut-hatch picks an irregular ragged hole with his bill. But 

 as this last artist has no i)aws to hold the nut firm while he pierces it, he, 

 like an adroit workman, fixes it as it were in a vice, in some cleft of a tree, 

 or in S(mie crevice, when standing over it he perforates the stubborn shell. 

 On placing nuts in the chink of a gate-post, where nut-hatches have been 

 known to haunt, it has always been found that these birds have readily 

 penetrated them. While at work they make a rapping noise, which may be 

 heard a considerable distance. Dr Plott informs us, that this bird, by putting 

 his bill into a crack in the bough of a tree, sometimes makes a violent sound, 

 as if the branch was rending asunder. Besides nuts it feeds also on cater, 

 pillars, beetles, and various other insects. 



The female deposits her eggs, six or seven in number, in some hole of a 

 tree, frequently in one that has been deserted by the woodpecker, on rotten 

 wood mixed wilh moss. If the entrance be too large, she nicely stops up 

 I hi-t of it with clay, leaving only a small hole for herself to pass in and out 

 While the hen is sitting, if a stick be put in the hole, she hisses likeasnaJke 



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