4 o WHITE-BREASTED, BLACK-CAPPED NUTHATCH. 



them so engaged ; but it must be rather in search of maggots, 

 that sometimes breed there, than for the kernel. It is, how- 

 ever, said, that they lay up a large store of nuts for winter ; 

 but as I have never either found any of their magazines, or 

 seen them collecting them, I am inclined to doubt the fact. 

 From the great numbers I have opened at all seasons of the 

 year, I have every reason to believe that ants, bugs, small 

 seeds, insects, and their larvse, form their chief subsistence, 

 such matters alone being uniformly found in their stomachs. 

 Neither can I see what necessity they could have to circum- 

 ambulate the trunks of trees with such indefatigable and rest- 

 less diligence, while bushels of nuts lay scattered round their 

 roots. As to the circumstance mentioned by Dr Plott, of the 

 European nuthatch "putting its bill into a crack in the bough 

 of a tree, and making such a violent sound as if it was rending 

 asunder," this, if true, would be sufficient to distinguish it 

 from the species we have been just describing, which possesses 

 no such faculty.* The female differs little from the male in 

 colour, chiefly in the black being less deep on the head and 

 wings. 



* When the nuthatch cracks or splits nuts, or stones of fruit, it is for 

 the kernels alone ; it is seen, from our various accounts, to be both a 

 seed and grain eater. The very curious manner in which our own nut- 

 hatch splits nuts seems perfectly proved by several observers ; and it is 

 no less curious, that the same place is often resorted to different times 

 in succession, as if it were more fit than another, or required less labour 

 than to seek a new situation. Montagu says, that the most favourite 

 position for breaking a nut is with the head downwards ; and that in 

 autumn it is no uncommon thing to find in the crevices of the bark of 

 an old tree a great many broken nutshells, the work of this bird, who 

 repeatedly returns to the same spot for this purpose : when it has fixed 

 the nut firm in a chink, it turns on all sides to strike it with most 

 advantage ; this, with the common hazel nut, is the work of some 

 labour ; but it breaks a filbert with ease. — Ed. 



