Passer es 51 



crown margined on each side by a black band. Little 

 reliance can be placed on the colour of the crown in 

 males as a distinction, but the Fire-crested Wren is more 

 sulphur-green on the neck and has a distinct black 

 line through the eye. The females have lemon-yellow 

 crests, the young have none. The last-named species 

 does not range further north than the Baltic, but is 

 the more common in some parts of southern Europe 

 and of north-west Africa ; it also breeds in Asia 

 Minor. 



Family SITTID.S!, or Nuthatches 



■ The Nuthatch {Sitta ccesia), notwithstanding its loud 

 whistling spring notes, is a shy bird, which attracts 

 little attention as it creeps quietly about the tree- 

 trunks or flies heavily to a new hunting-ground of the 

 same description in search of insect-food. The grey 

 upper parts are not conspicuous and the buff breast is 

 hardly more so. Nowhere really common, it is generally 

 found in weU-timbered districts and especially old parks, 

 while it is only a casual visitant to Scotland and perhaps 

 Ireland; the foreign range extends over Europe with 

 the exception of Scandinavia and Russia, where a white- 

 breasted form occurs, and Corsica, where there is a dis- 

 tinct species. As in the case of most of our residents 

 it breeds early, choosing a hole or crevice in a tree — 

 or more rarely in a bank — and lining it thickly with dry 

 leaves or fir-scales, upon which lie the six or more white 

 eggs with red and lilac spots, similar to, but larger than, 

 those of the Great Tit. The nesting-hole is plastered up 

 with mud, so as to leave only a circular entrance. This 

 species is known as the Nut-jobber from its habit of 

 hammering open with its powerful bUl the nuts of which 



4—2 



