138 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



other sites might be mentioned, and we once found 

 a nest of this bird in a bunch of dried herbs hanging 

 from a beam in an outhouse. One of the most 

 singular situations in which I ever met with a Tree- 

 Creeper's nest was in the foundation of a nest of the 

 Black- V'ulture in a tall pine-tree in Central Spain, 

 and I feel certain that with us old and new Rooks' 

 nests are used by these little birds. The nests vary 

 much in the materials of which they are composed ; 

 twigs, moss, grasses, with a lining of feathers, are 

 generally used, but I have known of a nest placed in 

 a cloven willow tree, and built entirely of strong 

 sedge, with a lining of wool, a few feathers, and 

 thistle-down. I should put the fall complement of 

 eggs at about eight ; I never found more, though I 

 have heard and read of nine ; they are white, generally 

 thickly spotted at the larger end with dark reddish 

 brown. The young are very easy to rear in confine- 

 ment up to a certain age, and are most amusing birds, 

 but after some four or five months they begin to 

 droop, and the only attempt at cure I have ever made 

 was the opening of their prison door. 



57. NUTHATCH. 



Sitia cctida. 



This bird is common and generally distributed in 

 all suitable localities in Northamptonshire with which 

 I am acquainted, though its numbers appear to me 

 to vary greatly in different years, and I cannot help 

 thinking that a certain amount of partial and irregular 

 migration occurs with the Nuthatch, as with many 

 other British birds which cannot be strictly classed 

 as migratory species. This is a very lively and 



