40 
WHITE-BREASTED, BLACK-CAPPED NUTHATCH. 
maggots, that sometimes breed there, than for the kernel. It 
is, however, said, that they lay up a large store of nuts for 
winter ; but, as I have never either found any of their maga- 
zines, or seen them collecting them, I am inclined to doubt 
the fact. From the great numbers I have opened at all 
seasons of the year, I have every reason to believe that ants, 
bugs, small seeds, insects, and their larvse, form their chief 
subsistence, such matters alone being uniformly found in their 
stomachs. Neither can I see what necessity they could have 
to circumambulate the trunks of trees with such indefatigable 
and restless diligence, while bushels of nuts lay scattered 
round their roots. As to the circumstance mentioned by Dr 
Plott, of the European nuthatch “ putting its bill into a crack 
in the bough of a tree, and making such a violent sound, as if 
it was rending asunder,” this, if true, would be sufficient to 
distinguish it from the species we have been just describing, 
which possesses no such faculty. * The female differs little 
from the male in colour, chiefly in the black being less deep 
on the head and wings. 
* When the nuthatch cracks or splits nuts, or stones of fruit, it is for the i 
kernels alone ; it is seen, from our various accounts, to be both a seed and 
grain eater. The very curious manner in which our own nuthatch splits nuts 
seems perfectly proved by several observers ; and it is no less curious, that the | 
same place is often resorted to different times in succession, as if it were more 
fit than another, or required less labour than to seek a new situation. Montagu 
says, that the most favourite position for breaking a nut is with the head down- 
wards ; and that in autumn it is no uncommon thing to find in the crevices of the j 
bark of an old tree a great many broken nutshells, the work of this bird, who 
repeatedly returns to the same spot for this purpose : when it has fixed the nut i 
firm in a chink, it turns on all sides to strike it with most advantage ; this, | 
with the common hazel nut, is a work of some labour ; but it breaks a filbert 
with ease. — Ed. 
