TREE CREEPER AND NUTHATCH.
bill is delicate and slightly curved; the upperside of the body is the same grey of the tree trunks, spotted with white. It lays five—sometimes as many as nine—milk-white eggs, delicately speckled with rust-red and blood-red spots. The nest is made in crevices, small holes, sometimes between the loosened bark and the tree, and is composed of fine soft material.
The Nuthatch.
(Sitta cæsia.)
Wherever in wood or garden the Nuthatch dwells its voice is heard. It calls sometimes a flute-like “tüüi, tüüi tüüi”—sometimes a quick “kwee, kwee, kwee”—and it is always very busy. It is the only bird we have that can climb head downwards and that as quickly as it is safe. The beak is strong and pointed. It picks out of crevices and from under the bark of trees everything that is there in the way of grubs and beetles and insect eggs. In the autumn it gets at oily seeds, conceals nuts and filberts in suitable crevices and knocks them till they crack. It does the same with the gall-nuts in order to get at the maggots or chrysalis of the gall-wasp. It is an absolutely useful bird and one not uncommon with us in Hungary.
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This bird is common in most districts in the centre and south-east of England where there is old timber. In the westward it is less common. In some old parks in Yorkshire it appears again, but is rare elsewhere in the northern counties. In Scotland it is not very often seen and in Ireland it is so far unknown. Beech-mast it is fond of in our own woods, but it feeds on insects on the ground as well as in the trees. This species, like the last-mentioned, is very mouse-like in its movements and many ornithologists assert that it sleeps with the head and back downwards.
The Nuthatch is as big as a Sparrow, but more solid; above bluish-grey; underneath white or rust-red; over the eye a black stripe. The tail is not adapted for climbing. Legs short and strong, claws strong and sickle-shaped, three toes turn to the front, one to the back. The clutch consists of six or eight white eggs, speckled with rust-red. The nest is formed of a wide hole, which so walled in by the bird with earth and clay that there is only just room for it to go in and out.
The Crossbill.
(Loxia curvirostra.)
The Crossbill is a stationary bird as to habitat, but it does ramble about. Staying at home, or wandering, depends upon the supply of sap or seeds of the fir tree, which forms its sole food; although it visits also beeches, maples, and alders, sometimes even falls back on thistle-seeds, and does not even despise caterpillars. Its beak is an excellent tool for removing husks and crushing seed. It wastes a great many seeds, for it lets fall all those which it cannot shell with one bite. It reminds us of the Parrot, not only by the form of its beak, but also by the clever way in which the beak is used in addition to the legs in climbing from bough to bough, just as the Parrot does. It is besides a cheerful, indeed, a restless bird. It sings whole songs, and the old bird fancier Bechstein has put words to one of these, beginning:—