438 BLTLLETIN 50, UNITED STATES ISTATIOlSrAL MUSEUM. 



Osteologtcdl cJiaracters."- — Interorbital septum nearl}^ closed and pre- 

 palatines broad as in Parida? {Par us), but skull slightly depressed 

 instead of elevated; no fronto-nasal noi" maxillo-premaxillar}^ hinge; 

 narial openings elongate ellipses; nasals peculiar in form, with the 

 external process carried for a considerable distance along- the pre- 

 maxillary, and the transpalatines and postpalatines but slightly bent 

 downward; pre palatines overlying and fusing with the premaxillaries; 

 a large free lachrymal, much as in Corvidji?; quadrate so compressed 

 vertically that the pterygoid lies immediately under, and almost in 

 contact with, the ascending process; pelvis much narrower anteriorly 

 than in Parida% the ischium and pul)is projecting farther downward 

 and backward, and the obdurator foramen connected with the very 

 large obdurator space; arm and manus relativel}^ (compared with 

 humerus) more elongate than in Parida? (very much as in Corvidse); 

 proximal portion of tibia thin and l)ent inward (much as in Cert/da); 

 tibia proportionally shorter than in Parida^, and first phalanx of first 

 digit remarkably long.'^ 



I find it somewhat difiicult to draw the line satisfactoril}^ between 

 the Sittidaj and the Certhiida3, certain genera {Tichodroma and CU- 

 QYiacteris) being distinctly intermediate so far as external characters 

 are concerned, though apparently more nearly related to Certhia than 

 to Sitta,' and though disliking very much to difi'er from so excellent 

 an authority as Dr. Stejneger,^ I can not help believing that the group 

 here named Sittidie is much more closly related to the Certhiidtc than 

 to the Paridie, a view which is in harmony not onl}' with Mr. Lucas's 



"Based on Sitta carolinensis; from Lucas, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xiii, 342, 343. 



b "Taking all skeletal characters into consideration, the differences between Sitta 

 and the Parid?e are such as would seem to preclude their being grouped together, 

 while the peculiarities of the wing of Sitta, slight as they may aj^pear, when added 

 to the other characters, seem sufficient to warrant the assignment of the genus to a 

 separate family." (Lucas, Proc. U. S. Nat. ]\Ius., xiii, 343.) 



The following additional characters of the Sittidie are given by Gates, in his "Birds 

 of British India," i, 298: 



"The intrinsic muscles of the syrinx fixed to the ends of the bronchial semirings; 

 the edges of both mandibles smooth, or the upper one simply notched; hinder 

 aspect of tarsus smooth, composed of two entire longitudinal laminte; wings with 

 ten primaries; tongue nontubular; nostrils clear of tlie line of forehead, the lower 

 edge of the nostril nearer to the commissure than the upper edge is to the culmen; 

 plumage of the nestling resembling that of the adult female, but paler; nostrils 

 overhung by some hairs; rictal bristles present; rectrices twelve; hind toe and 

 inner front toe very unequal in length; sexes generally different in color; aa 

 autumn moult only." 



c With regard to the "quite doubtful" relationships of the Certhiidas Dr. Stejneger 

 says: "The only thing which we know at present with any degree of certainty is that 

 the old notion of the creepers being nearly allied to the nuthatches [Sittidtc] is wrong, 

 and that in some way or another they are relattid to the 'Cinnyrimorph;e' of modern 

 authors." (Standard Natural History, iv, 539. It should be noted that in the work 

 cited, as well as in more recent writings on tbe suljject. Dr. Stejneger treats of the 

 nuthatches as a subfamily, Sittina', of the Parida?. ) 



