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ORD. Il. GENUS IX. NUTHATCH. 
Bit, ftraight, on the lower mandible a fmall angle. 
Nosrrits, fmall, covered with feathers reflected over them. 
ToncueE, fhort, horny at the end, and jagged. 
Toss, three forwards, one backwards: the middle toe joined clofely at the 
bafe to each of the outmoft: the hind toe as large as the middle one. 
SPECIES ky NUTHATCH 
Pl. 52. 
Sitta Europea. Lin. Syft. I. p. 177- 
Le Torchepot. Bri/. Orn. III. p. 588. 
The nuthatch is in length near five inches three quarters, in breadth nine 
inches. The bill is of a light black on the upper part and at the point, and of 
a pale colour towards the lower part of the bafe: eyes hazel: crown of the head, 
back, and coverts of the wings, of a fine bluifh grey, the latter flightly tinged 
with brown: quills dufky: breaft and belly of a dull orange colour: cheeks and 
chin white: from the mouth a black ftroke paffes acrofs the eye: the tail con- 
fifts of twelve feathers, the two middle ones grey :. the two-outer ones tipt with 
grey, adjoining which is a crofs fpot of white, and the remaining part black : 
the vent is dafhed with dirty red: legs yellowith grey: claws large. The fe- 
male is a trifle lefs than the. male, but like it in plumage. 

This bird feeds not only on infects, but alfo on nuts, of which it lays up a 
confiderable ftore in the hollows of trees. To crack a nut it places it in a-chink, 
and ftanding above it ftrikes it with its bill with all its force. It breeds in the 
hollows of trees, and if the entrance to its neft be too large it ftops up part 
of it-with clay, leaving juft room to go inand out. It makes a flight lining of 
mofs; and lays fix or feven eges, for which fee Pl.. XII. Fig. 3. 

