Birds 97 



CERTHIIDAE 



The Rocky Mountain Creeper (Certhia familiaris montana) 

 is an extremely interesting bird, being a passerine with the habits 

 of a woodpecker. With these habits go a certain resemblance in 

 structure, the tail feathers being rigid and sharp pointed. It is 

 a little brown bird, white below, nearly five inches long. The 

 family is an Old World one, and our bird is a subspecies of the 

 common European species. 



SITTIDAE 



The nuthatches are also a circumpolar group, presumed to 

 be of Old World origin. The bill is rather long and slender, and 

 the tail is shorter than the wing. The sharp barbed tongue shows 

 analogy with that of the woodpeckers, but of course there is no 

 real relationship. The habits are like those of the creepers and 

 woodpeckers, running up and down the trunks of trees, looking 

 for insects.* Our species are the Pygmy Nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea), 

 a small bird with grayish olive crown and bluish gray back; the 

 Red-breasted Nuthatch (S. canadensis), the top of the head black, 

 with a conspicuous white stripe extending backward from the eye, 

 and the under parts reddish brown; and the Rocky Mountain Nut- 

 hatch (5. carolinensis nelsoni), our largest form, the head black 

 above, but general color above grayish blue, under side white, 

 posteriorly chestnut. S. canadensis, which is placed in a special 

 subgenus Microsiita, is not common. The race S. carolinensis 

 nelsoni was originally described by Mearns from the Huachuca 

 Mountains in Arizona. 



PARIDAE 



The titmice or chickadees are small birds with short bills, the 

 body roundish and the head with a very short neck, so that they 

 have a globose appearance except for the outstanding tail. The 

 family is circumpolar, and in view of its affinities and distribution 

 may be considered to have originated in the Old World. We 

 have only four species in Colorado. The Gray Titmouse (Baeo- 

 lophus inornatus griseus) has plain gray plumage and a crested 



moit 



*Mr. Warren note, that they are the only birds which go down a tree trunk head fore- 



