NUTHATCH. 185 



bones. Old beech trees, from the deep longitudinal fissures 

 in the bark, are the favourite resort of the Nuthatch, as 

 affording both food and the means of enabling them to get 

 at it. In the spring of the present year, when examining 

 some fine old beech trees, upon one of which a pair of the 

 Nuthatch had been for some time observed to be very busy, 

 a considerable number of the beech nuts were found fixed 

 in the angles of various fissures in the bark, several shells 

 and husks were lying at the base of the tree, and there was 

 little doubt these trees were among those which this pair 

 of birds visited daily. 



The call of the Nuthatch is a shrill single note, frequent- 

 ly repeated ; and, like the other true climbers, it builds in 

 holes of trees : if the external aperture is large, the Nut- 

 hatch plasters up part of it with mud, and if the plastering 

 is removed, the bird almost invariably renews it the first or 

 second day. In reference to this habit of working with 

 plaster, one of the names applied to this bird in France is 

 Pic-mafon. Bird-nesting boys, when they find a hole that 

 has been recently plastered, always examine it, as they 

 know by experience that it is almost certain to be ten- 

 anted. 



The Nuthatch makes a slight nest, or rather a collection 

 of dead leaves, moss, bits of bark and wood, and lays from 

 five to seven eggs ; these are nine lines in length and seven 

 lines in breadth, white, with some pale red spots ; the eggs 

 are very much like those of the Great Tit ; but the spots 

 are generally less numerous and rather larger. 



The actions of these birds are very amusing, and it is 

 not difficult to induce them to pay constant visits to a 

 garden. It is only necessary to fix a few nuts in the bark 

 of any tree that is conveniently situated for observation 

 from a window, and the Nuthatch will soon find them ; 



