248 
CERTHlAim 
a pint cup. It is astonishing how soft, and warm, and 
clean, this simple nest seems. I have it now, and it sur¬ 
prises all who see it. The hole by which the Nuthatches 
entered was peculiarly small. I could scarcely get one 
finger in through it.” 
I should have had difficulty in understanding how a 
nest lined with the bark of a tree could be, as Mr. Smith 
describes it, “soft and warm/' if he had not kindly sent 
me a portion of it, which is thinner than the paper on 
which I write ; tough, and as pliable as the leaves with 
which other birds line their nests. I have tried in vain 
to detach from the tree pieces of bark as fine. The eggs 
are from five to seven in number, and in some of their 
varieties very much resemble those of the greater tit¬ 
mouse; others are marked with large blotches of red and 
grey, and are sometimes of an oval form, much blunted 
at the smaller end, like the figure of the plate. 
