is avian family by the somewhat
peculiar and apparently inapt name of nuthatch. The older English form
of the word was "nuthack," which unfortunately has been changed to
"nuthatch," a word that gives an erroneous impression, for no bird ever
hatches a nut. But with the last syllable "hack" the difficulty is all
cleared up, as his habit of hacking or chipping nuts, which he places
in chinks of the bark or wall, is well known.

The nuthatch of England belongs to the species just named. He does not
wear a black hood or mantle, but merely a black ribbon on the side of
his head, enclosing the eye. His upper parts are bluish gray, save the
outer tail feathers, which are black; his cheeks and throat are white,
his breast and belly buff, and his flanks and lower tail-coverts
chestnut red. A graphic English writer, Dr. W. H. Hudson, gives the
following enthusiastic description of the little tobogganist of his
native woodlands:

"When I see him sitting quite still for a few moments on a branch of a
tree in his most characteristic nuthatch attitude, on or under the
branch, perched horizontally or vertically, with head or tail
uppermost, but always with the body placed beetle-wise against the
bark, head raised, and the straight, sharp bill pointed like an arm
lifted to denote attention,--at such times he looks less like a living
than a sculptured bird, a bird cut out of beautifully variegated
marble--blue-gray, buff, and chestnut, and placed against the tree to
deceive the eye. The figure is so smooth and compact, the tints so
soft and stone-like; and when he is still, he is so wonderfully still,
and his attitude so statuesque! But he is never long still and when he
resumes his lively, eccentric, up-and-down and sidewise motions, he is
interesting in another way. He is like a small woodpecker who has
broken loose from the woodpecker's somewhat narrow laws of progression,
preferring to be a law unto himself.

"Without a touch of brilliant color, the nuthatch is a beautiful bird
on account of the pleasing softness and harmonious disposition of his
tints; and, in like manner, without being a songster in the strict
sense of the word, his voice is so clear and far-reaching and of so
pleasing a quality, that it often gives more life and spirit to the
woods and orchards and avenues he frequents than that of many true
melodists. This is more especially the case in the month of March,
before the migratory songsters have arrived,