128 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



navian Nuthatch (Sitta eurofcea), a species which has the und< 

 parts white, and which ranges from Scandinavia and Northei 

 Russia, across Siberia to Japan and Kamtchatka. Gradi 

 variations in plumage occur throughout the range of the Whit 

 breasted Nuthatches, which have been divided into seven 

 races and species, but Mr. Seebohm affirms that intermedia! 

 forms occur between all of them, not excepting Sitta europaa 

 and S. ccesia. 



Habits. These are a combination of the habits of a T 

 and a Woodpecker. Like the former bird, the Nuthatc 

 seeks diligently for its insect food on the trunks and branch* 

 of trees, over which it runs like a Woodpecker, with th 

 difference, that its tail is not pressed into the service of climb- 

 ing a tree, nor does it gradually ascend from the bottom to th 

 top, as a Woodpecker so often does. On the contrary, 

 Nuthatch will generally be found in the higher branches, an 

 will work its way from the end of the branch down toward 

 the trunk, and is just as much at home on the under side o 

 a limb as it is on the upper. Its movements are like those ( 

 a Mouse, rather than those of a bird, and it often runs, heac 

 downward, or hangs on the under side of a branch an 

 hammers away at the bark with its powerful little bill. Th 

 noise produced by one of these birds, when tapping at a tree, 

 is really astonishing for a bird of its size, and, if undisturbed, 

 it can be approached pretty closely. We have often watche< 

 a Nuthatch at work, and the pieces of dead bark which th 

 bird prises off with its wedge-shaped bill, are sometimes as larg 

 as the bird itself. Its general food consists of insects, and ii 

 the winter the Nuthatches join the wandering parties of Tit 

 and Creepers which traverse the woods in search of food. A 

 a rule, however, the Nuthatch evinces a partiality for park-lane 

 and old timber, and its cheerful note, often repeated as it run 

 along a bough, sounds like " t'wee, t'wee, t'wee." It has also 

 a scolding note, or note of alarm, not unlike the churr of a j 

 Warbler. In the autumn it feeds on hazel-nuts and beech- 1 

 mast, breaking them open by constant hammering, and, like 

 Tits, the Nuthatches can be tempted to the vicinity of houses 

 in winter, and become quite interesting by their tameness. 



. The nesting commences in the middle of April, a | 



