Volume 24, Plate XXII / Ornithology (Birds)

Nuthatch

Sitta Europea

The Nuthatch is a truly scansorial bird of local distribution, most frequent in southern England, climbing trunks in all positions yet often feeding on the ground on seeds, nuts, and insects, fixing nuts in bark crevices and hammering them open. Delicate blackish grey above with a black eye streak, white throat, buff orange underparts, and chestnut flanks, it nests in tree holes, walling up wide entrances with clay, and defends the eggs by hissing.