340 
NUTHATCH. 
head and all upper parts of the body are of a bluish-grey ; from the 
upper mandible through the eye is a black streak passing backwards 
down the neck ; chin and cheeks whitish ; breast and belly bulf-colour ; 
sides and thighs ferruginous-chestnut ; quills dusky ; under coverts of 
the tail white, margined with ferruginous ; tail short, composed of 
twelve feathers, but not stilf, as in the woodpeckers ; the two middle 
ones bluish-grey ; the outer one is black, tipped with grey, separated 
by a white bar ; the second nearly the same, but the spot of white is 
only on the inner web ; the rest are black, more or less marked with a 
little grey and white at the ends ; legs pale yellowish ; claws large ; the 
hind one very strong. The female is lighter colour beneath, especially 
about the sides and thighs. 
The singular noise produced by some species of woodpeckers, by re- 
iterated strokes of the bill against the decayed limb of a tree, has been 
erroneously ascribed to this bird by Dr. Plott. 
It remains with us the whole year, but is a local bird, and not to be 
found in several parts of the kingdom. We have never observed it far 
north, nor so far west as Cornwall. It chiefly affects wooded and en- 
closed situations, choosing the deserted habitation of a woodpecker in 
some tree for the place of nidification. This hole is first contracted by 
a plaster of clay, leaving only sufficient room for itself to pass in and 
out. The nest is then made of dead leaves, most times that of the oak, 
which are heaped together without much order. The eggs are six or 
seven in number, white, spotted with rust-colour, so exactly like those 
of the oxeye in size and markings, that it is impossible to distinguish 
any difference. If the barrier of plaster at the entrance is destroyed 
when they have eggs, it is speedily replaced ; a peculiar instinct to pre- 
vent their nest being destroyed by the woodpecker and other birds of 
superior size, who build in the same situation. 
*It appears to me no less probable that the wall may be constructed 
to prevent the unfledged young from tumbling' out of the nest when 
they begin to stir about ; for all young birds of a certain age become 
very restless, and in the instance in question they might, if there was 
no barricade, find their way out, and be precipitated to the bottom of 
the tree. 
M. Montbeillard tells us, that when they cannot find a hole in a tree 
to suit them, they hew out an excavation with their bills, if they can 
meet with a spot that is worm-eaten. Its manner of proceeding in this 
operation may be understood from the wedge-like form and abrupt 
termination of its bill, as is justly remarked by Mr. Swainson. A bird 
