SITTIDA. 113 
THE NUTHATCH. 
SitTa c#sta, Wolf. 
The Nuthatch is tolerably common in most of the districts in the 
south-east and centre of England which contain old timber. In the 
west it is rarer beyond Herefordshire, though perhaps increasing, 
as it is in’ Brecon, Radnorshire and some other parts of Wales, 
where it was formerly considered a very uncommon bird. In 
Lancashire it is seldom seen, and in Yorkshire it is mostly restricted 
to the large old parks ; while in the more northern counties it seems 
to have decreased during the present century, and is now very rare. 
In Scotland it has been obtained in Haddington-, Berwick- and 
Roxburgh- shires, and observed in Skye; it is also said to have 
occurred on Bressay, in the Shetlands. In Ireland the Nuthatch is 
as yet unknown: an attempt by Col. Cooper to introduce it at 
Markree Castle, Sligo, seeming to have failed. 
On the Continent the northern limit of this species appears to be 
the peninsula of Jutland, where it meets its close ally, S. europea 
(with nearly white under parts), which replaces .S. cesta in Scandi- 
navia, Northern Russia and Siberia. From the Baltic southwards 
to the Mediterranean and Black Seas, our bird is generally 
distributed ; Loche records it from Algeria and Capt. S. G. Reid 
from North-western Morocco; and it has been obtained in Asia 
Minor and Palestine. Eastward, it cannot with certainty be traced, 
K 
