DALMATIAN NUTHATCH. 153 



encountered it again in the hill country of Judaea. 

 Unlike our species it is confined to the most barren 

 and rocky regions, and runs up and down the stones 

 with wondrous agility, descending head downwards, and 

 then by a sudden bound flying to the foot of the next 

 rock, which it climbs and runs down after the same 

 fashion, searching the crevices as it goes for small 

 beetles, with which the stomach of those I examined 

 were filled. In summer and winter alike they were 

 always in pairs, never (as Sitta Muropced) in small 

 flocks. The note is louder than that of our species, 

 and much resembles the call of the Spotted Woodpecker." 



The following account given by Lord Lilford, in his 

 descriptions of the birds observed by him in the Ionian 

 Islands, (Ibis, vol. ii., p. 282,) is somewhat different: — 

 "Sitta Syriaca is common in certain localities in Epirus, 

 particularly amongst the stony and precipitous hills 

 near Santa Quaranta, where I have frequently observed 

 it in small parties of five or six, flitting about and busily 

 examining the holes and crevices of the rocks. It is 

 a lively and restless bird, and has a note entirely dif- 

 ferent from that of the Common Nuthatch. I never 

 observed this bird to perch on a tree or shrub, but 

 almost invariably found them on the most exposed and 

 barren hill sides." 



Mr. W. H. Simpson has also some interesting remarks 

 about this bird in his "Ornithological Notes from Mis- 

 solonghi and Southern iEtolia," (Ibis, vol. ii., p. 289.) — ■ 

 "On the opposite side -of the same stone was a nest of 

 that most eccentric bird, Sitta Syriaca; it had been 

 repaired once or twice, but at that period was not 

 inhabited. The nest was plastered over the mouth of 

 a small cavity, and, were it not for the little round 

 entrance hole, would be very difficult to distinguish 



