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ai.Len’s naturalist’s library. 
navian Nuthatch ( Sitta europtza ), a species which has the under- 
parts white, and which ranges from Scandinavia and Northern 
kussia, across Siberia to Japan and Kamtchatka. Gradual 
variations in plumage occur throughout the range of the White- 
breasted Nuthatches, which have been divided into several 
races and species, but Mr. Seebohm affirms that intermediate 
forms occur between all of them, not excepting Sitta europma 
and S. cccsia. 
Habits. — These are a combination of the habits of a Tit 
and a Woodpecker. Like the former bird, the Nuthatch 
seeks diligently for its insect food on the trunks and branches 
of trees, over which it runs like a Woodpecker, with this 
difference, that its tail is not pressed into the service of climb- 
ing a tree, nor does it gradually ascend from the bottom to the 
top, as a Woodpecker so often does. On the contrary, a 
Nuthatch will generally be found in the higher branches, and 
will work its way from the end of the branch down towards 
the trunk, and is just as much at home on the under side of 
a limb as it is on the upper. Its movements are like those of 
a Mouse, rather than those of a bird, and it often runs, head- 
downward, or hangs on the under side of a branch and 
hammers away at the bark with its powerful little bill. The 
noise produced by one of these birds, when tapping at a tree, 
is really astonishing for a bird of its size, and, if undisturbed, 
it can be approached pretty closely. We have often watched 
a Nuthatch at work, and the pieces of dead bark which the 
bird prises off with its wedge-shaped bill, are sometimes as large 
as the bird itself. Its general food consists of insects, and in 
the winter the Nuthatches join the wandering parties of Tits 
and Creepers which traverse the woods in search of food. As 
a rule, however, the Nuthatch evinces a partiality for park-land 
and old timber, and its cheerful note, often repeated as it runs 
along a bough, sounds like “ t’wee, t’wee, t’wee.” It has also 
a scolding note, or note of alarm, not unlike the churr of a 
Warbler. In the autumn it feeds on hazel-nuts and beech- 
mast, breaking them open by constant hammering, and, like 
Tits, the Nuthatches can be tempted to the vicinity of houses 
in winter, and become quite interesting by their tameness. 
Nest.— The nesting commences in the middle of April, a 
