5684 Birds. 



one would imagine the merest puff of wind would send it flying before it. Why they 

 should have selected a tree, and such a tree, I am at a loss to conjecture, as there are 

 houses and outbuildings in all directions. They are not tree sparrows, however, 

 although they might possibly be taken for such, as Montagu tells us that "every 

 house sparrow that has built its nest in a tree (by no means an uncommon occurrence) 

 has at once been pronounced to be the tree sparrow, and consequently that species has 

 been supposed to be more plentiful, and more generally diffused throughout England, 

 than we have any reason to believe is the fact/'... April 14. The late tempestuous 

 weather has completely swept away the new nest, not one straw remaining, but the 

 patient and indefatigable birds are still there, seemingly unwilling to quit the scene of 

 their past labours, nor should I be surprised to find them shortly renewing their 

 endeavours; but how the female can, under the circumstances, manage to retain her 

 eggs till the nest may be ready to receive them is to me a mystery, unless she is 

 endowed with the faculty, generally ascribed to the cuckoo, of bearing them about 

 until a fit opportunity offers for depositing them. — Id.; April 14, 1857. 



Notes on the European Nuthatch (Sitta europcea). — April 8, 1857. Descried a female 

 nuthatch in a lofty oak tree ; it was seemingly engaged in enlarging a hole or opening 

 in one of the branches, possibly with a view to constructing a nest, for so intent was it 

 upon the work that it allowed me not only to approach the tree, but to explode two or 

 three percussion caps before I could discharge the gun, which had been loaded for 

 some days, and when it did take wing I was not long in discovering it again, being 

 attracted to the spot by the loud tapping sound it made with its bill, which might 

 probably have been heard at the distance of fifty yards or more. ... April 9. I observed 

 two nuthatches fly across the road and alight suddenly on some high trees : I followed 

 them up, and having shot at and wounded one it flew to some distance, and, although 

 badly hit, managed to retain its footing on an elevated branch till brought down by a 

 second shot: it proved to be a handsome male bird. On subsequently shooting the 

 female, I found that although a pellet (No. 8) had gone through its eye, passing out 

 at the top of the skull, it was still alive, and I had some difficulty in killing it, — 

 indeed its tenacity of life was something extraordinary. The male, although a stouter 

 and heavier bird than the female, does not much exceed it in length, although the 

 bill is stronger and about a tenth of an inch longer: the plumage, however, is far 

 more brilliant, the sides and feathers beneath the wings, as well as under tail-coverts, 

 being of a bright chestnut or reddish brown, whereas in the female these parts are 

 much paler, indeed many shades lighter. The black band or line commencing at the 

 nostrils, where it is but a tenth of an inch in width, after passing over the eye, 

 gradually increases to about two-tenths of an inch. The outline figure of the nut- 

 hatch, as represented in the ' Naturalist's Library,' is, I think, pretty correct, but the 

 colouring of Temminck is more natural, although the artist has not only given the 

 bird a tail about as long again as it ought to be, but has drawn it in a right line, 

 whereas it is considerably curved, as well as the whole body, bill excepted, which is 

 quite straight. There is a large, well-defined black patch beneath and on the wing, 

 which, although very striking, is not even alluded to by the authors I have referred to. 

 Merely judging from its struggles to escape, although wounded in the manner 

 described, T should have set it down as a wonderfully powerful bird, and, on removing 

 the skin, I found the muscles, considering the small size of the bird, uncommonly 

 strong, and the flesh unusually firm. The bill, although undoubtedly strong, I should 

 not, at first sight, have considered sufficiently so either to have perforated or cracked a 



