44 o PERCHING BIRDS. 



Nuthatches have rather a habit of entering houses through open windows, prob- 

 ably out of curiosity ; and we owed to this habit a pet nuthatch, which became 

 extremely tame, and used to take flies from our finger. They are decidedly 

 pugnacious, and if two males are placed in the same cage in the breeding- 

 season, the probability is that the stronger bird will kill his rival. The devotion 

 which paired birds show to one another is a marked trait in the character of 

 the nuthatch. Once we saw a great deal of a pair of nuthatches which used to flit 

 about the apple-trees in a garden at Montreux ; and we noticed the fearless way in 

 which they foraged for food amongst the dead leaves, often approaching close to us 

 with imperturbable confidence. The adult male has the upper-parts slaty blue ; a 

 black line passes from the base of the bill through the eye to the nape : the wings 

 and tail are slaty blue, the outer tail-feathers showing, when open, white edges ; the 

 flanks are bright chestnut-red ; and the lower-parts buffy white. A variety with a 

 black throat and crown has been recorded. 



The Syrian nuthatch (aS'. neumayeri) might more properly be 

 called the rock-nuthatch, for its habits in Southern Europe differ in a 

 very remarkable way from those of its congeners ; this nuthatch building its nest 

 of earth, small stones, etc., and placing it upon the face of a rock, and constructing 

 a round, funnel-shaped entrance, an inch or more in length. Mr. Seebohm, who 

 found this nuthatch building in the crags near Smyrna, gives the following account 

 of its nidification : — " The nest of this bird is a very curious structure. A recess in 

 the rock is selected, and a funnel made of mud and little bits of dry grass is built 

 in front of it. It is quite an important affair ; the base is frequently twenty-four 

 inches in circumference, and the walls vary in thickness from half an inch to an 

 inch and a half. The tube of the funnel, which, of course, serves for the ingress 

 and egress of the bird, is about four inches long, with an internal diameter of an 

 inch and a quarter at the entrance. The outside of the nest is carefully made to 

 resemble the appearance of the rock against which it is built. One which I brought 

 home with me is curiously corrugated or granulated, to imitate the calcareous 

 deposits on the inside of the cave where I found it. The nest is warmly lined with 

 goats' wool, thistledown, and all sorts of soft materials. As might be expected in 

 a bird which remains in its summer home during the winter, it is an early breeder, 

 laying its eggs about the middle of April ; and it would not appear to breed a 

 second time in the year, as all the nests I found in June were empty. The number 

 of eggs varies from six to ten. They are very beautiful, well marked, and unlike 

 any other egg with which I am acquainted. The typical egg is about the size of 

 that of the wryneck, but rather wider and flatter at the top and straighter at the 

 sides. It has the same pearly-white ground colour, spotted with large rust- 

 coloured blotches." This nuthatch seems to confine itself entirely to rocks, and 

 never alights on the trunk of a tree. The adult male has the entire upper-parts 

 leaden blue ; a black stripe passes through the eye ; the quills are bluish brown, 

 edged with russet ; the tail is blackish brown, with the outer feathers tipped with 

 russet ; and the throat and lower-parts are white, tinged with russet on the flanks 

 and abdomen. 



One of the most abundant of the nuthatches of North America is 

 the widely distributed pigmy nuthatch (S. pygmoea), which roams 



