If these birds are left at liberty in the room, they are accustomed, like the tits, to hide the greater part of what is given to them, to keep it for another meal; but their trick of piercing holes in the wood makes them inconvenient, and therefore it is better to keep them in a cage.
BREEDING.--The nuthatch builds its nest in the holes of old trees, and lays six or seven eggs spotted with red.
MODE OF TAKING.--As it has the same taste for hemp seed and oats as the tits, it may often be caught in the same snare; it may also be taken in the area or barn floor trap. Its call is "_gru, dek, dek_."
ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--Its plumage, liveliness, agility, and great cunning in catching and hiding its food, are its most agreeable qualities.
The birds of this group have the beak conical and pointed, in general rather strong, with both the mandibles moveable, and fit for peeling and cleaning grain. Their feet are slender, and their claws divided. Some of them do not confine themselves to grain, but also eat insects. Those which feed solely on seeds disgorge them into the crop of their young, the others simply put the food into their beaks. The greater part of them build their nests very skilfully. The females brood alone, or are very rarely assisted by the males in hatching.
This group and the following are peculiarly the real _cage birds_; those pretty and attractive little creatures which enliven our rooms with their songs.
Those which feed only on seeds may be tamed at any age.
Loxia curvirostra, LINNÆUS; Le Beccroisé, BUFFON; Der Kreuzschnabel, BECHSTEIN.
The length of this bird is nearly seven inches, of which the tail measures two and a quarter. The beak, which is one inch in length, and very thick, has its two mandibles curving in opposite directions, and crossing each other at the points, whence the name. It is no fixed rule for the upper mandible to cross to the right or left, but its direction appears to be acquired when young. The shanks, which are eight lines high, and the beak, are brown; the iris is nut-coloured.
The change of colour, which some assert this bird is subject to three times a year, simply occurs as follows:--
The young male, which is at first of a greyish brown, with a little yellow, becomes after moulting entirely red, darker on the upper part of the body than on the lower, the quill and tail feathers excepted, which are blackish. This generally happens in April or May. At the second moulting this red colour becomes a greenish yellow, which is permanent; so that when red they may be known to be the young male birds, and when yellow the old ones.