THE NUTHATCH. 
263 
It sought them also about the ceiling and walls, and found 
many. It continued all day, without intermission, at this 
employment, and on an average caught something every 
minute. “ We may,” says the writer, “ thus form some 
idea of the immense number of insects destroyed by this and 
similar birds, hearing especially in mind, that this was in a 
room where the human eye could scarcely recognise a dozen 
insects altogether, and that in the open air, insects would, 
doubtless, he much more numerous. Though so actively 
engaged in its own occupation, it seemed to care little for the 
presence of a spectator ; for it sometimes alighted on either 
my head, my shoulders, or fingers ; and when settling, would 
permit me at any time to put my hand upon it and take it 
up, though when in my hand it would struggle to get away. 
It seemed likely to live and thrive, when unfortunately, on 
settling in front of a dove-cage in the room, one of the doves 
thrust its head through the wires, and struck it forcibly 
with its beak. At first the poor little bird did not appear 
to suffer from the blow, hut it never flew again ; and about 
an hour afterwards, on my taking it up in my hand and 
throwing it up, it could only flutter to the ground ; and on 
my laying it on the table, it stretched out its little feet, 
shivered, and died.” 
In walking through woods, a rapping sort of noise may be 
frequently heard high up in the trees ; and though the hearer 
feels pretty confident that he is within a few yards of the 
spot from whence this rap, rap, rap, proceeds, he may fail in 
finding out the cause ; but if he has a keen eye, he may at 
last perceive a small greyish blue-backed bird with a yellowish 
breast, busily employed, knocking away with the full force of 
its head, beak, and body, as if the whole were one solid mass, 
moving on the hinges of its thigh-bones. After a while, the 
bird will be seen to glide, rather than climb, up or round the 
stem, and disappear, till it is again detected by a repetition of 
the rap, rap, rap. It is the Nuthatch, in the act of examining 
trees for insects, or engaged in hammering nuts to pieces, 
which it first adroitly fixes in a crevice of the bark, and when 
the shell is broken, eats the kernel. Should the nut acci- 
