DALMATIAN NUTHATCH. 55 



cage remain always on the ground, and will not perch. The families 

 remain long together, and the young are taught by their jDarents all 

 about catching insects." 



The following interesting account of the nidificatiort of this bird is 

 translated from the Italian of the Marchese Oratio Antinori, and is 

 inserted in "Naumannia," for 1857, page 429: — 



"This pretty little bird enlivens with its cheerful note the highest 

 and most lonely part of the Anatolian mountains, where it generally 

 remains. Sometimes, however, it comes down into the plains, where 

 it is especially seen on the rocks surrounding mountain torrents, or on 

 the walls of old buildings. It builds its nest the last days of March, 

 and the beginning of April; and for this purpose it chooses a rock 

 or ruined wall, where among the projections it can be sheltered from 

 the rain. It is easy to observe with what caution this bird makes 

 choice of a locality, for before it finally resolves to build its nest in 

 a particular spot, it places some of the materials, which consist of 

 resinous substances mixed with feathers, hair, rootlets, thread, or wool, 

 in several different places. This is evidently done to satisfy itself, not 

 only that it may not be discernible to others, but that it may be 

 impervious to wet, and sufficiently firm a foundation to last many years. 

 Indeed it would be quite impossible to move the nest of Sitta syriaca 

 from the place to which it is fastened, nor could it be distinguished 

 from the parts to which it is attached, were it not that the dark shades 

 of the entrance hole sometimes reveal its existence. One which I 

 recently found near the town of Magnesia, on a commanding rock, 

 had a diameter of ten inches, and very nearly six in depth. The 

 upper wall was three inches thick, and the sides and under wall about 

 four fifths of an inch, while the depth of the neck and entrance hall 

 was two inches. The weight of the whole was upwards of five hundred 

 drachms, (sixty-three ounces!) allowing for that part of it which I 

 could not cut away from the rock. It is quite clear that this bird 

 cannot build every year a new nest so large and heavy, but that it 

 must last a long time, even for a whole life. Round the hole, which 

 is chosen for the building of the nest, and also over the nest itself, is 

 a quantity of resin, which is mixed with the other materials, and with 

 earth. This resin it gets especially from Pistacea terebinthus and 

 lentisciis. When melted by the warmth of the sun, it runs down and 

 the nest gets a very firm hold of the rock, and will bear a great 

 weight. 



Having mixed together feathers and fibres with clay and cement 

 out of the water, to which hairs and threads are sometimes added, it 

 shapes its nest in the form of a flask, with a round opening of one 



