NUTHATCH. 



341 



of this species, which had been accidentally winged by a sportsman, 

 was kept in a small cage of plain oak-wood and wire. During a night 

 and a day that his confinement lasted, his tapping labour was incessant ; 

 and after occupying his prison for that short space only, he left the 

 wood-work pierced and worn like worm-eaten timber. His impatience 

 at his situation was excessive ; his efforts to escape were unremitted, 

 and displayed much intelligence and cunning. He was fierce, fearlessly 

 familiar, and voracious of the food placed before him. At the close of 

 the second day he sunk under the combined effects of his vexation, as- 

 siduity, and voracity. His hammering was peculiarly laborious, for 

 he did not peck as other birds do, but grasping hold with his im- 

 mense feet, he turned upon them as upon a pivot, and struck with the 

 whole weight of his body, thus assuming the appearance, with his en- 

 tire form, of the head of a hammer, or, as birds may sometimes be seen 

 to do on mechanical clocks, made to strike the hour by swinging on a 

 wheel. 1 



The Rev. W. T. Bree, of Allesley, informs us, that having caught a 

 Nuthatch in the common brick trap used by boys, he was struck with 

 the singular appearance of its bill, so unlike that of any bird he had 

 ever seen. It was blunt at the end, and presented the appearance of 

 having been truncated in an oblique direction, as if the natural beak 

 had been cut off. He naturally inferred that it had been fairly ground 

 down to about two-thirds of its original length, by the bird's pecking at 

 the bricks, in its efforts to escape from the trap. 2 * 



No persecution will force this little bird from its habitation when 

 sitting ; it defends its nest to the last extremity, strikes the invader 

 with its bill and wings, and makes a hissing noise ; and after every 

 effort of defence, will suffer itself to be taken in the hand rather than 

 quit. 



The Nuthatch is more expert in climbing than the woodpecker, for 

 it runs in all directions up and down a tree ; whereas the other is never 

 observed to descend. The stiff tail of those birds support them in the 

 act of climbing and hacking, while the flexible tail of the Nuthatch 

 gives it no such advantage, nor does it seem to want it, for its most 

 favourite position, when breaking a nut, is with the head down- 

 wards. In the autumn it is no uncommon thing to find in the cre- 

 vices of the bark of an old tree, a great many broken nut-shells, the 

 work of this bird, who repeatedly returns to the same spot for this pur- 



Mag, of Nat. Hist. ii. 248. 



2 Mag. of Nat. Hist. i. 329. 



