The Nuthatch. 61 



like these, it delves its own hole, though sometimes 

 taking possession of one already hollowed out If the 

 aperture of this be larger than is necessary for the admis- 

 sion of its body, the bird has been known to make it 

 narrower by laying a plaster of mud or clay around the 

 orifice. This trouble is taken, suggests Yarrell, as a pre- 

 caution against attacks by the tits, a small embrasure 

 being easier of defence than a large one. The reason is 

 rather unsatisfactory. A blow from the powerful beak 

 of a Nuthatch would send tomtit, even the great Parus 

 major, to perdition. More likely the "chinking" is 

 done to hinder the entrance of hawk oi" owl — possibly the 

 pole-cat. When the Nuthatch excavates for itself, the 

 hole is a cylindrical tunnel, first running horizontally, 

 then at the end dropping downward to the site of the 

 nest, — a loose deposit of leaves, bits of bark, and moss, — 

 where it lays six or seven eggs of a dull white colour, 

 spotted, or blotched, with brown. In the pairing season 

 its note, " kweet-kweet " may be heard, though at other 

 times it is rather a silent bird. Its presence is more 

 often betrayed by the noise it makes while hammering 

 at the hazel-nuts. Its mode of extracting their kernels is 

 perhaps the most curious thing relating to it. In order 

 to keep the nut steady to receive the stroke of its beak, 

 it first presses it into a, crack of a decayed tree, or a 

 crevice in the bark, — sometimes between the posts of a 

 paling, — just as a blacksmith fixes in his vice the iron he 

 intends operating upon. And while pecking at the shell 

 the bird is so well sustained by its claws as to have the 

 whole body at command, which moves up and down with 

 the blows, its weight giving strength to the stroke. 

 Take it all in all, the Nuthatch is one of the most inter- 

 esting of our indigenous birds, for it is a true native. 



