214 Birds, 



there the first thing in the morning, and apparently the last thing be- 

 fore going to roost. Seeing that the nuts were carried away whole, I 

 began to crack them, and fix the kernel only in the crevices, or by 

 means of pins, to the tree. The greater part of the nuts were now 

 eaten on the spot; occasionally, when a large piece was got, the birds 

 flew away with it to some tall trees close by, but very soon returned 

 for more. Their absence on these occasions was very short, certainly 

 not long enough to lead me to suppose they had time to eat the nut ; 

 I concluded it was either added to a store already existing, or depo- 

 sited on the tall trees. 



The nuts latterly were fixed to a sort of table of about eight inches 

 diameter, formed by the loss of a limb of the tree which had been cut 

 off. They were put on to the number of seven or eight at a time ; but 

 on no one occasion (and I watched them almost daily for two years) 

 did I see the pair feeding at the same time. They were frequently 

 — perhaps generally — both on the tree at the same time, but the fe- 

 male never ventured to help herself in the presence of the male ; and 

 if he returned while she was in the act of feeding, she immediately re- 

 tired, leaving the banquet to his solitary enjoyment. If by chance she 

 had not observed his return to the tree, he very unceremoniously drove 

 her away : however, on two occasions in the breeding season, I have 

 seen him feed her with much apparent tenderness. Sometimes in 

 May they absented themselves altogether, and I saw nothing of them 

 for a month : one date of such absence was May 9. Neither of them 

 would permit the presence of another bird, and the accidental arrival 

 of a titmouse or sparrow, was the signal for a very amusing chace from 

 bough to bough and shrub to shrub ; the intruder appearing to have 

 a most wholesome fear of the nuthatch's formidable bill. Even the 

 pugnaceous robin holds them in awe, and retires without contest. 



I may here observe that the ox-eye {Parus major), the nun (P. ccb- 

 ruleus), and (rarely) the cole-titmouse (P. ater), were as fond of the 

 nuts as the nuthatch, and worked at them with much assiduity during 

 his absence ; yet though there were three or more tits feeding at once, 

 they did not cause much loss to the proper guests, as the pieces they 

 abstracted were very minute ; on the contrary, two or three blows of 

 the nuthatch's bill frequently divided the nut into halves, one of which 

 was carried off on the instant, and the other also, if both birds were 

 on the tree. 



Fragments of nut were sometimes driven from four to six feet from 

 the tree by the violence of the blows applied : they were almost inva- 

 riably caught by the bird before they reached the ground, and, with- 



