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having used a large quantity of mud in plastering them up to suit their requirements. The earth 
used was excellently prepared, some of the masonry being remarkably strong; and although this 
bird is said to work very rapidly, the construction of some of these nests must have been a tedious 
task. Of the eggs of this species I have in my collection a considerable series, chiefly obtained 
by myself in England and on the Danube. In size these eggs vary from #4 by $3 to 22 by 23 
inch, and in general coloration resemble those of S. ewropwa, but are rather less spotted. My 
friend Dr. E. Rey, writing from Halle, in Saxony, informs me that he has “ taken fresh sittings 
of eggs from the 16th of April to the 27th of May. ‘The full complement of eggs appears to be 
eight or nine. ‘The average size of thirty-eight in my collection is 19-9 by 14-6 millimetres, the 
two largest measuring 22°25 by 14:50 millimetres and 21:25 by 15:25 millimetres, the two 
smallest 18°75 by 15:0 millimetres and 20°25 by 14:0 millimetres. 
“‘ A couple, which I kept in captivity, became so tame that, after being set at liberty, they 
for some time returned daily through an open window to be fed.” 
The food of the Common Nuthatch consists chiefly of small insects and their eggs, which it 
picks out of the crannies in the bark of trees; but it also feeds on vegetable food, and has no 
small partiality for hazel-nuts, filberts, and beech-nuts. Pastor Snell states (Cab. Journ. 1857, 
p. 188) that it feeds on the poisonous berries of Bryonia dioica, L.; and Mr. C. von Heyden 
(Cab. Journ. 1859, p. 316) also remarks that during the winter it often eats the larve of the 
beech-gall-insect, Cecidomyia fagi. 
Before closing the above article, I must not omit to refer to a most remarkable nest recorded 
by the well-known British ornithologist Mr. F. Bond, who, writing to ‘The Field’ for the 28th 
of October, 1871, gives the following particulars:—‘‘I have received this summer from the 
neighbourhood of Kast Grinstead a nest built by a pair of Nuthatches, which is so remarkable 
in its construction and in the site selected for it that I think a notice of it is worth recording. 
It is well known that the Nuthatch almost invariably makes use of a hole, either in a tree or 
wall, in which to deposit its eggs, and is not, in the strict sense of the word, a nest-builder. In 
this instance a haystack was selected; and the birds, by pulling out a quantity of the hay and 
plastering up the hollow with mud brought from a considerable distance, formed a nest of 
similar construction to that of a Swallow, but very much larger, with an entrance-hole near the 
top, and the ends of the hay stems neatly embedded in the mud. The particulars, which were 
sent to me with the nest, are shown in the following letter of my correspondent :— 
“¢ Hast Grinstead, Sept. 8, 1871. 
“¢Sir,—The height of the nest from the ground was between 5 and 6 feet ; the liming was composed of 
decayed leaves only (inclosed are a few which fell from the nest during the packing) ; the birds were observed 
pulling the hay from the stack till they had formed a large opening before they commenced building with 
mud, which they had to carry about 150 yards, that being the nearest point where they could obtain it. My 
informants (two men working on the farm) say that they saw the birds were building for a very long time, 
quite six weeks or two months, and they could not understand what the birds were plastering a lot of mud 
on the stack for. W. May.’ 
“To this I may add that the nest when cut out of the stack weighed as nearly as possible 
11 Ib., and measured 13 inches in length by 8 inches in its greatest breadth and 4 inches in 
thickness, The lining, which my correspondent mistook for dead leaves, was in reality com- 
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