NUTHATCHES. 
439 
hairs; bristles are present at the rictus of the gape; there are twelve tail-feathers ; 
and the first and second toes are of very unequal lengths. In all the group there 
is but one annual moult, and the plumage of the nestling resembles that of the 
female; while in most cases the coloration of the plumage is different in the two 
sexes. With the exception of South America and Africa south of the Sahara, nut¬ 
hatches are pretty generally distributed, extending to Australasia. They are small 
climbing birds, with the first toe greatly developed, and the second proportionately 
shortened; and feed both on insects and nuts. Resident in their habits, they nest 
in the holes of trees or the crevices of rocks, very generally reducing the size of the 
aperture of the hole by building it up with mud. In addition to the type genus, 
the family is represented by the Australian genus Sitella, and likewise by a third 
known as Hyposittci. 
common Abundant in many parts of Central and Southern Europe, as 
Nuthatch, it is in England, in the spring of the year the common nuthatch 
(Sittci ccesid) invariably indi¬ 
cates its whereabouts by its 
merry call-note, which rings far 
and wide through the beech 
woods, which the bird chiefly 
frequents. The nuthatch pairs 
at the close of winter, and chooses 
for its nesting - site a hole in 
some hollow tree, plastering up 
the entrance with clay, and 
only leaving a small orifice 
through which the birds pass 
into the nest; the interior of 
the nest being lined with dry 
beech leaves. The eggs are 
white, spotted with bright red; 
and, when the young are fledged, 
they live for a time with their 
parents, but soon become in¬ 
dependent, and rove through the woods in company with tits and other small birds. 
If a nuthatch be watched, it will be found that it sometimes perches across a 
bough like any little singing bird; but when feeding it generally runs up and down 
the trunk of old trees something like a woodpecker. The call-note of the nuthatch is 
a loud tiuet tivet, which may be compared to the words fetch it, fetch it, but this 
cry must not be confused with the spring whistle of the male. If encouraged, 
it becomes a tame and confiding bird, laying aside much of its fear of man, 
and readily learning to avail itself of the resources of civilisation. In winter, 
especially, the nuthatch approaches dwelling-houses, and willingly partakes of 
scraps of food with tits. During the summer it feeds chiefly upon insects, 
but in autumn subsists more upon nuts and beech-mast. Few sights are 
prettier than to watch a nuthatch opening nuts; the bird swinging its body freely 
forward as it brings down its long bill with accuracy on the right part of the shell. 
