122 The Nuthatch. 



they have a favourite crack for unshelUng the kernels, as some- 

 times a peck of broken shells may be seen under this crack." 



The Rev. W. T. Bree tells us that " the tapping of the bird 

 on the hard shell may be heard at a considerable distance, and 

 that during the operation it sometimes happens that the nut 

 swerves from its fixture and falls towards the ground. It has 

 not descended, however, for the space of more than a few yards, 

 when the nuthatch, with admirable adroitness, recovers it in the 

 fall, and, replacing it in its former position, commences the at- 

 tack afresh. The fall of the nut in the air, and the recovery by 

 the bird on the wing, 1 have seen repeated several times in the 

 space of a few minutes." ' 



This is a little act of skill in the bird which it would be 

 charming to observe ; and here again I would remark, as I have 

 so often done before, that this is but a single instance of what 

 many of us, living in the country, might witness in some wood- 

 land nook near at hand, if we would only be lovingly still and 

 patient, and interest ourselves in the ways and means of the 

 innocent animal-life around us. 



The nest of the bird also deserves our notice ; and let me 

 here call your attention to the beautiful and living little portrait 

 of the bird at home, given us by Mr. Harrison Weir, than whicTi 

 we have nothing more truthful from his pencil. The home 

 of the nuthatch is nothing more, to begin with, than the hole 

 in an old tree, which, probably, has been deserted by the wood- 

 pecker. As, however, the woodpecker either requires a more 

 enlarged entrance to her nursery, or considers it more seemly, 

 the nuthatch, who merely likes a snug little hole to creep in at, 

 and nothing more, walls up the opening with a plastering of 



