144 BIRD-LAND ECHOES. 



the head and neck are black. When flying, the 

 white breast and white under sides of the wings are 

 easily seen. . . . They are steady, hard-working 

 creatures ; but in early spring, as the pairing season 

 approaches, they get a little unsettled and freaky, 

 performing the most interesting and unusual evolu- 

 tions in the air, darting out from the trunk of some 

 tall tree, circling round like a flash, and returning to 

 the same spot they have just left, and going through 

 other manoeuvres hard to describe and meaningless 

 to human observers. And all the time they are ut- 

 tering cries far more musical than any one familiar 

 only with their unmusical voices would give them 

 credit for." My nuthatch of the garden was quite 

 commonplace to-day, if any native bird can be so. 

 It was intent on finding food, and gave no play to 

 feelings of a less prosy character. Had I gone to 

 the nearest woods I might have found the red- 

 breasted nuthatch, which comes and goes the winter 

 through, and has much the same manners as his 

 larger cousin. Mr. Cram says, " His wings are 

 short and he darts in the most uncertain manner 

 from tree to tree, more like a beetle than a bird." 

 This peculiarity I have never noticed. 



There was a kinglet in the gooseberry bushes, 

 and when the shrike flew by I think it gave a mouse- 

 like squeak ; at any rate, it darted away, but reap- 

 peared at the other end of the garden after some 

 minutes, as if it knew of an underground passage 

 and kept it open for such emergencies ; but it is 

 such a wee creature that it can go where no other 



