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rocky place I heard various notes, and at first could not say by which bird they were uttered, 
until I saw a Blue Rock-Thrush singing on a rock. On my later excursions I put down all the 
singing that could be heard at a great distance as being that of this bird, as I could never see the 
songster. When searching for nests of Hirundo rufula I found, on the 24th of May, 1858, on 
the face of a rock a portion of a nest formed of earth, small stones, dung, &c., such as I had 
hitherto never seen, and which I thought must be the nest of a Blue or a Rock-Thrush, although 
I recollected afterwards that these species build a nest of grass-straws. Later than this, on the 
14th of June, I heard, when beyond the tolian Klissura, a very loud note, and observed a Nut- 
hatch climbing about the rocks; and about half an hour’s walk further on I found in a cave a 
finished nest, of the same materials as the fragment above referred to, which was fastened to the 
rock, and at about three fourths of its height had a round funnel entrance about one inch long. 
With a sharp knife I cut away sufficient of the crust to get my fingers in, and I then found five 
eggs, which showed me who the owner of the nest was, as I was already well acquainted with 
the eggs of this species.” 
Dr. Kriiper gives particulars of the taking of several other nests, all of which were similar 
in construction to the one above referred to. He states that this Nuthatch sometimes lays ten 
eggs, though eight or nine is the usual complement. The female sits so close that she may 
generally be taken on her eggs. The Syrian Nuthatch has a passion for building nests, and will, 
according to Dr. Kriiper, often build one and not make use of it for the purpose of depositing 
its eggs, but will build another. He states that in one nest he had cut a hole in order to 
ascertain its contents; and on revisiting the place a few days after, he found that the old birds 
had not closed the hole thus made, but had attached another funnel-shaped entrance, and thus 
the nest had two separate entrances. Von der Mihle says that the nest of this species has an 
entrance eleven inches long; but this assertion is disproved by Dr. Kriiper, who says that the 
entrance-funnel is generally about 1, and never more than 2 inches long. Both Von der 
Miihle and Kriiper remark that the hard wing-coverings of beetles (Lydus algericus, Chrysomela 
fulminans, &c.) ave often fastened on to the nest with the earth of which the nest is constructed. 
To our friend Mr. H. Seebohm, whose notes on Sitta kruepert we published in our last part, 
we are also indebted for the following notes :— 
“The mountains around Smyrna generally dip into the flat valleys with a precipitous lime- 
stone cliff, frequently ending in a steep slope of rocky débris, in which many shrubs, especially 
the oleander and a dwarf oak, struggle for existence. As you approach this border land, which 
divides the vineyards from the mountains, the first birds you are likely to see are the Russet and 
Black-eared Wheatears (Saazicola stapazina and S. aurita), and the first bird you are likely to 
hear is the Syrian Nuthatch (Sitta newmayeri). In these localities the latter bird appears to be 
common. At Burnabat it was one of the commonest birds, ranging from the foot of the cliff to 
nearly the top of the rocky hills. If I remember right, Dr. Kriiper took above a score nests in 
that neighbourhood in one week in the spring of 1872. We made an expedition together to a 
little village among the hills north of Menimen in search of the nests of the Rose-coloured 
Pastor. We learned that they had bred there in hundreds the year previous; but we could not 
discover a trace of them; so we sat down to lunch by an old fountain under the shade of a 
mulberry-tree. Half a dozen or more Lesser Kestrels were on the wing; a Roller was busy 
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