i64 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



FAMILY SITTID^. 



THIS group is represented in Great Britain by only one species, which Seebohm 

 regarded merely as an aberrant genus of Tits ; but he stated rightly, that 

 " In their habits they resemble the Woodpeckers and the Creepers more than the 

 true Tits." Nevertheless in their activity and many of their actions Nuthatches are 

 very Tit-like : so also, in the strength of their bills and feet, the position and 

 covering of the nostrils, their short first primary, scutellated tarsi and hooked 

 hind-claw, they show Parine affinities, whilst their eggs are extremely Tit-like in 

 character. 



Our Nuthatch, though it approaches the Titmice, could never be confounded 

 with them ; it has more nearly the aspect of a dull washed-out Liothrix, yet with 

 a little longer bill : it seems therefore far better to follow Howard Saunders, and 

 regard it as the representation of a distinct, though allied, family. In one respect 

 it differs very widely from the Tits in habits, and that is in its use of clay to 

 lessen the size of a hole containing its nest, and the very meagre character of the 

 nest itself. 



In Vol. VIII of the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," Dr. Gadow 

 regards the Nuthatches as a Subfamily of the Creepers fCerthiidceJ , practically 

 ignoring the afl&nity of the former to the Titmice ; but, apart from the total 

 dissimilarity in the bills of the Creepers and Nuthatches, the latter are decidedly 

 less insectivorous, and their manner of sitting across a branch to crack a nut, is 

 infinitely more suggestive of a Tit than a Creeper ; whilst their softer shorter tails, 

 stouter legs, and the character of their nostrils, serve at once to distinguish them 

 from the CcTthiida. 



As a student of Bird-life, rather than of Bird-mummies, the convenience of a 

 distinct family for the Nuthatch commends itself to the writer. 



