BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 439 



conclusion in tho muttor, but also with tiicse of Dr. (jiidow." I nui.st, 

 however, dissent from the views of those (Dr. (nidow among the 

 number) who would place the Madagascaran genus IhjpoHitta^ among 

 the Sittidio, and would, without hesitation, place it in a distinct family, 

 liyposittidfE,'' 



The Nuthatches are a limited group of small, slender-billed, scanso- 

 rial Osc'ines, occupying, as ul)ove stated, an intermediate position 

 between the Paridie and Certhiidte, but apparently most nearly related 

 to the latter. Besides differing from the Paridic in the structural 

 characters mentioned on pages -S7<), 877, they differ very much in their 

 scansorial habits, being perhaps the most expert "climbers'' among 

 birds, running nimbly up or down the trunk of a tree or the face of a 

 cliff or stone Avail, often head downward, which Woodpeckers and 

 creepers (Certhiida>) are unable to do. 



Leaving out the Australasian genus JSfeositta., which may l)e regarded 

 as constituting a separate subfamily (Neosittinw), the Nuthatches com- 

 prise two genera (by some authors combined into one), of which Sltta 

 has representatives in all portions of the Palsearctic and Nearctic 

 regions, and as far south in the Indian region as Burmah, while 

 CalllsUta is peculiar to India, Ceylon, Java, Timor, and the Philip- 

 pines. The family is therefore chiefl}'' an Old World one, especially 

 since of the twenty-two species of Sitfa recognized by Dr. Gadow in 

 the British Museum ''Catalogue"" only four arc American. 



Genus SITTA Linnaeus. 



Sitta Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, i, 1758, 115 (Type, S. europsea Linrifeus). 

 SlUella (emendation!) Rafixesque, Analyse de la Nat., 1815, 68. 



Sittida> with non-operculate nostrils, concealed by antrorse bristly 

 latero-frontal plunuiles; rictal bristles obvious; upper parts bluish 

 gray, with or without black on head; tail marked with both black and 

 white. 



Range. — Temperate portions of northern hemisphere. (Nearly 

 forty known species and subspecies.) 



"Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, viii, 340. 



f> JI[ipositta Newton, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1881, 438 (type, Ifi/pJicrpex coraUirostris 

 Newton). 



'"The characters of which arc as follows: 

 a. Maxilla uncinate at tip, with tomium distinctly notched sul)teriuiiially, the man- 

 dihular tomium also notched near ti[i; hallux (without claw) nearly as long as 

 middle toe ( without claw) ; outer toe very nearly as long as middle toe and united 

 to the latter for the whole of the hasal and half of its suhhasal i)halanges; inner 

 toe only ahout half as long as outer; acrotarsium hooted; tail three-fourtiis as 



long as wing Hyposittidse. 



fut. Maxilla not uncinate at tipand neither maxillary imr niaudilnilar tomia notched; 

 iiailiix (without daw) decidedly shorter than middle tm" (without claw); 

 outer toe decidedly shorter than middle toe and united to the latter for not 

 more than the hasal phalanx; inner toe three-fomths as long as outer toe; 

 acrotarsium scutellatc; tail ahoiit half as long as wing Sittidae. 



