NUrHATCH. 
341 
of this species, which had been accidentally wing-ed by a sportsman, 
was kept in a small cag*e 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.^ 
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.^ * 
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. 
- Mag. of Nat. Hist. i. 329. 
