NUTHATCH. 339 



only being- on record : one shot in Flintshire, another in Kent, one seen 

 in Bridge water, in 1805 ; one shot in north Devon, in 1808, and seen 

 in Northumberland in 1819. Most frequent in Germany; found also 

 in Sweden and Denmark ; and said to visit Burgundy in vast flocks. 



The Nutcracker is said to lay up a store of acorns and nuts for win- 

 ter; but we much doubt the fact, as no animal but such as become 

 partly torpid in cold weather require such a provision. Such stores 

 are most probably the collection of dormice, or some such animals, 

 which being- found by this bird is plundered. The same faculty is 

 attributed to the jay and nuthatch ; but they only rob the granary 

 of mice, who frequently deposit their winter store in the hollow of a 

 tree ; such as beans, peas, corn, nuts, and acorns. 



This bird, whose partial food seems to be the kernels of nuts, most 

 probably breaks the shell in the manner of the nuthatch, by hacking a 

 hole in it, or splitting the shell by reiterated strokes of the bill, for 

 which that part seems better calculated than for cracking it by com- 

 pression, as the grosbeak breaks the stones of the haw, whose bill is 

 short and strong, and furnished with muscles of prodigious strength. 



It is said in some parts to keep chiefly in the pine forests, probably 

 for the sake of the seed of that tree. It is also said to make its nest in 

 the hole of a tree, which it perforates, or at least it enlarges what has 

 already been begun by the woodpecker : the bill seems not ill-suited 

 to this purpose ; its food consists of various insects and larvae, which 

 inhabit the bark of trees, also upon various kinds of fir and nuts. Is 

 found common in the pine forests of Russia and Siberia, and all over 

 Kamtschatka. 



NUTHATCH (Sitta Europcea, Linnaeus.) 



Sitta Europaea, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 177. — Fauna Suec. No. 104 Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 



U0.~Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 261.— Rati, Syn. p. 47. A. 4. — Will. p. 98. t. 23. 

 — Sitta caesia, Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p 128. — La Sitelle, ou Torchepot, 



Buff. Ois. 5. p. 460. t. 20.— Ib. pi. Enl. 623. f. 1 Sitelle Torchepot, Temm. 



Man. d'Orn. 1. p. 407 Kleiber, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 2. p. 1061. — Frisch, 



Yog. t. 39.— Nuthatch, Br. Zool. 1. No. 89. t. 38.— Will. (Angl.) p. 142.— 

 Lewins Br. Birds, 2. t. 53. — Albin, 2. t. 28. — Lath. Syn. 2. p. 648.— Ib. Supp. 



p. 117.— Mont. Orn. Diet Bewick's Br. Birds, 1. p. 121 Pult. Cat. Dorset. 



p. 5.— Don. Br. Birds, 4. t. 81.— Flem. Br. Anim. p. 81.— Selby, pi. 39. fig.l. 

 p. 113. 



Provincial. — Nutjobber. Woodcracker. 

 This is the only species met with in England. It is about the size 

 of a sparrow ; length near six inches ; weight rather more than six 

 drams. The bill is about three quarters of an inch long, both mandi- 

 bles equally convex, and a little compressed sideways ; the upper one 

 dusky, lower one whitish at the base ; irides hazel. The crown of the 



z 2 



