NUTHATCH

This article appears in Volume V19, Page 919 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: NUM-ORC

NUTHATCH , in older English NUTHACK, from its habit of hacking or chipping nuts, which it cleverly fixes, as though in a vice, in a chink or crevice of the bark of a tree, and then hammers them with the point of its bill till the shell is broken. This bird was long thought to be the Sitta europaea of Linnaeus; but that is now admitted to be the northern form, with the lower parts white, and its buff-breasted representative in central, southern and western Europe, including England, is known as Sitta caesia. It is not found in Ireland, and in

Scotland

its

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

is merely accidental. Without being very plentiful anywhere, it is generally distributed in suitable localities throughout its rangethose localities being such as afford it a sufficient

supply

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

of food, consisting during the greater part of the year of insects, which it diligently seeks on the boles and larger limbs of old trees; but in autumn and winter it feeds on nuts,

beech

BEECH

-mast, the stones of yew-berries and hard seeds. Being of a bold disposition, and the trees favouring its mode of life often growing near houses, it will become on slight encouragement

familiar

FAMILIAR (through the Fr. familier, from Lat. familiaris, of or belonging to the familia, family)

with men; and its neat attire of ash-grey and warm buff, together with its sprightly gestures, render it an attractive visitor. It generally makes its nest in a hollow branch, plastering up the opening with clay, leaving only a circular hole just large enough to afford entrance and exit; and the interior contains a bed of dry leaves or the filmy flakes of the inner bark of a fir or

cedar

CEDAR (Lat. cedrus, Gr. iapos)

, on which the eggs are laid. In the Levant occurs another species, S. syriaca, with somewhat different habits, as it haunts rocks rather than trees; and four or five representatives of the European arboreal species have their respective ranges from

Asia

ASIA

Minor

to the Himalayas and Northern China. North America possesses nearly as many; but, curiously enough, the geographical difference of coloration is just the

reverse

REVERSE

of what it is in Europethe species with a deep rufous breast, S. canadensis, being that which has the most northern range, while the white-bellied S. carolinensis, with its western form, S. aculeata, inhabits more southern latitudes. The Ethiopian Region has as representative of the group the Hypositta corallirostris of Madagascar. Callisitta and Dendrophila are nearly allied genera, inhabiting the Indian Region, and remarkable for their beautiful blue plumage. Sittella, with four or five species, is found in Australia and New

Guinea

GUINEA

, whilst Daphnoesitta occurs in New

Guinea

GUINEA

. The nuthatches are placed in the Passerine family Sittidae, intermediate between the Paridae and the Certhiidae. (A. N.)

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