5 
there is but little on record. I have examined a specimen obtained by Mr. Blanford at Mazan- 
daran, in North Persia, which is certainly a typical example of S. cwsia, and does not in the 
least differ from ordinary European birds. ‘The bird procured by Mr. W. E. Brooks in Cashmere, 
and described by him under the name of S. cashmirensis (Journ. As. Soc. 1872, p. 73), certainly 
approaches very closely to, if it is not absolutely identical with, our common European bird; but 
the under tail-coverts in this Cashmere bird being without any white edging, and the abdomen, 
flanks, and lower tail-coverts darker than in S. himalayana, rather point to a distinct race. I 
regret that I have no specimen to compare with my series of S. cesta. In measurements, I may 
remark, Mr. Brooks's bird agrees with S. cwsia. Dr. Radde refers to a Nuthatch as found on the 
Amoor, which appears to me to be either the present species or the race found by Mr. Brooks in 
Cashmere. Dr. Radde, who refers to S. cwsia as Sitta europea typica, and to the true Sttta 
europea as Sitta europea uralensis, speaking of the Nuthatches of Siberia, writes as follows :— 
“The typical European variety certainly predominates in Southern Siberia; and the Nuthatches 
of the Bureja Mountains were either precisely similar to those found in Central Europe, or else 
had the reddish brown portion of the plumage darker and richer-coloured.” However, not 
having been able to examine any specimen of the Nuthatch referred to by Dr. Radde, I am 
unable to give a decided opinion as to what it really is. 
As regards the habits of the present species, they do not in any way differ from those of Sitta 
europea. It is everywhere sedentary, only taking short journeys in the autumn and winter, 
being probably driven from its summer haunts by scarcity of suitable food. Naumann, writing 
on its habits in Germany, says that ‘it is rather a wanderer than a true migrant. Many certainly 
do not leave the wood (where they have spent the summer) during the cold season, if not driven 
out by want of food: but these are comparatively very few; for most wander off in the autumn 
and travel through places where they have not been during the summer, and where there is less 
wood, and spread wherever they can find food. ‘Towards the spring they leave these localities, 
and revisit their breeding-haunts. The autumn wandering takes place in company with Coal 
and Blue Titmice in September and October, and to some extent in November; but in spring 
they soon return, and in February or March, if the weather is fine, are again in their breeding- 
places. They return so imperceptibly that one must suppose that they return by some other 
way than that they took in the autumn.” Some excellent field-notes were communicated by 
Mr. Harley to Macgillivray, which I transcribe as follows :— This bird remains with us through- 
out the year, inhabiting the park and old enclosure more than the hedge-row trees or the dense 
umbrageous wood. In fact, Ihave never seen it upon our hedge-row trees, although I have 
often sought for it when I have been watching the haunts of the Woodpeckers, which so much 
resemble it in their habits. In winter it is not quite mute, but has a small piping note, not 
unlike that of the Creeper. This is a call-company note, inasmuch as the Nuthatch in winter 
feeds in little companies or families of four to six individuals. On the 21st of November (1839) 
I went after a pair of the Greater Spotted Woodpecker and a pair of Nuthatches in Garrendon 
Park (near Leicester), the weather being mild, but gloomy, and the wind south. It was not 
without difficulty that I found the Nuthatches, which invariably feed where the trees are most 
protected from the wind. ‘Thus, when the south or forest wind is playing upon the park, the 
Nuthatches are to be found amongst the large oaks and elms on the north side of it; and when 
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