300 NUTHATCH. 
those who are acquainted with its haunts, on account of its shy and retiring 
habits. As it feeds mostly on nuts, it is seldom seen except in woods or 
their immediate vicinity, although it will sometimes become rather bold, and 
frequent gardens and orchards where nuts are grown. The bird also feeds 
upon insects, which it procures from under the bark after the manner of the 
creepers, and it is not unlikely that many of the nuts which are eaten by the 
Nuthatch have been inhabited by the grub of the nut weevil. It will also 
feed upon the seeds of different plants, especially preferring those which it 
pecks off the fir-cones. 
In order to extract the kernel of the nut, the bird fixes the fruit securely in 
some convenient crevice, and, by dint of repeated hammerings with its beak, 
breaks a large ragged hole in the shell, through which the kernel is readily 
extracted. The blows are not merely given by the stroke of the beak, but 
the bird grasps firmly with its strong claws, and, swinging its whole body 
upon its feet, delivers its stroke with the full weight and sway of the body. 
NUTHATCH.—(Sitta Europea.) 
The nest of the Nuthatch is placed in the hollow of a decaying tree, and 
the bird always ehooses some hole to which there is but a small entrance, 
Should the orifice be too large to please its taste, it ingeniously builds up 
the hole with clay and mud, probably to prevent the intrusion of any other 
bird. If any foe should venture toc near the nest, the mother bird becomes 
exceedingly valiant, and dashing boldly at her enemy, bites and pecks so 
vigorously with her powerful beak, hissing and scolding the while, that she 
mostly succeeds in driving away the assailant. The nest is a very inartificial 
structure, made chiefly of dried leaves laid loosely upon the decaying wood, 
and rudely scraped into the form of a nest. 
In its colour the Nuthatch is rather a pretty bird, of pleasing though not 
of brilliantly tinted plumage. The general colour of the upper parts is a 
‘delicate bluish grey, the throat is white, and the abdomen and under parts 
are reddish brown, warming into rich chestnut on the flanks. From the 
angle of the mouth a narrow black band passes towards the back of the 
