3 
ward the present species is found it is very difficult to state with any degree of certainty, as most 
authors have referred to Sitta cwsia under the name of Sitta ewropwa, considering the two 
species identical—a view which we certainly cannot indorse. The bird referred to under the 
name of Sitta europea by the writers on the ornithology of Central and Southern Germany 
must, we consider, in all instances, be referred to Sitta cesia; for we can find no instance on 
record of the occurrence of the present species further.south than Denmark. Our friend 
Mr. Alfred Benzon, who, however, we may add, looks on these two species as merely climatic 
races, informs us that the Common Nuthatch (Sitta cesia) is found in Denmark, where it meets 
with the present species on Fyen in that country, and that Sitta europea does not even range as 
far down as the south of Denmark. 
In Europe, therefore, the Northern Nuthatch possesses a very restricted range; but to the 
eastward it is to be met with through Siberia as far as Japan. Von Middendorff found this 
Nuthatch in flocks on the 16th of April in the woods between the Amga and the Aldan, in 
Siberia, and he also again observed it in the Stanowoj Mountains in the middle of May. We 
have carefully read over his descriptions, and convinced ourselves that the bird referred to by 
him is the true Sitta europea. Von Schrenck refers to it as a common bird throughout Siberia ; 
and Dr. G. Radde states that it is numerous in Dauria and Lake Baikal, but that in the Bureja 
Mountains the other species (Sitta cwsia) occurs, and has the underparts more richly coloured 
than the usual average of Central-Kuropean specimens. We ourselves have before us examples 
of Sitta europea (obtained by Dr. Dybowski) from the shores of Lake Baikal, but have not been 
able to examine any of the specimens referred to by Dr. Radde as being obtained in the Bureja 
Mountains. 
Mr. H. Whitely, in his notes on birds collected in Northern Japan, states that he found this 
species in great numbers in the woods near Hakodadi, and there obtained, in the months of 
October and November 1865, the specimens he sent home. 
In its habits and mode of nidification the present species closely assimilates to our Common 
Nuthatch. Our friend Dr. C. R. Sundstrom informs us that in Sweden “ during the spring and 
summer they are found in pairs, generally frequenting the oak-, beech-, or aspen-woods where 
old hollow trees are scattered about; during the autumn and winter, however, they appear to 
travel about singly, and at those seasons often visit inhabited places. Lively and active, the 
Nuthatch is almost always on the move, climbing up and down the trunks and boughs of the 
large trees, searching assiduously after food, which consists chiefly of insects and their larve 
and eggs. During the winter season it eats seeds of various sorts; and any that have hard shells 
it fixes in a convenient crack in a tree, and, hanging head downwards, breaks by repeated hard 
blows with its bill. It has also a habit of laying up a store for hard times in a hollow tree, 
often in the hole which it uses for the purposes of nidification. As its beak is not strong 
enough to enable it, like a Woodpecker, to hack its own nest-hole, it chooses some suitable ready- 
made hole, which, when too large, it plasters up with clay and damp earth, leaving an orifice just 
large enough to allow it to pass easily in and out. It lays six or seven eggs, which both the 
male and the female incubate.” Mr. Benzon, however, as below stated, informs us that it occa- 
sionally lays as many as eight, and even nine eggs. This gentleman, who has given us the 
Danish names for this species, which we have noted above, further informs us that he has never 
at 
