584 SLENDER-BILLED BIRDS. 



are seen in October, and return to the North in April. 

 With its nest we are yet unacquainted. 



Length 4^ inches, alar extent 8. Legs and feet, dusky greenish- 

 yellow. 



BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH. 



(Sitta pusilla, Lath. Wilson, ii p. 105. pi. 15. fig. 2. Phil. Museum, 



No. 2040.) 



Sp. Charact. — Lead-color ; head and neck above light brown ; 

 beneath dull white ; lateral tail-feathers black, tipped with grey, 

 and crossed with a line of white. 



This small species is seldom seen to the north of the 

 state of A^'irginia. In the Southern States it is rather 

 common, and is also met with in the island of Jamaica. 

 Like the last, which it resembles in manners, it is very 

 fond of pine trees, and utters a similar note, but more 

 shrill and chirping. Its food, besides the seeds of the 

 pine, is usually the insects which infest the forest trees. 

 Its nest is in hollow trees. In winter, families of this 

 species, of 8 or 10 individuals, may be seen busily, hunt- 

 ing in company, and keeping up a perpetual and monot- 

 onous screeping. It is less suspicious than most other 

 sylvan birds, sometimes descending down the trunk of a 

 tree, watching the motions of the by-stander, and if the 

 intrusion happens to be near the nest, or while engaged 

 in digging it out, the little harmless mechanic utters a 

 sort of complaining note, and very unwillingly relinquish- 

 es his employment, which is instantly renewed on the 

 removal of the observer. 



Length 4^ inches, alar extent 8. Legs dull blue. Iris hazel. 



CREEPERS. (Certhia. Lin.) 



In these birds the bill, is long,"or of middling length, more or less 

 arched, entire, 3-sided, compressed, slender, and acute. Nostrils 



