Notes on the Plumage of North American Birds 445 



THE BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH 



A narrow strip of country along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, from southern 

 Delaware to eastern Texas, forms the principal home of the Brown-headed 

 Nuthatch, whence it ranges up the middle of the Mississippi Valley to southern 

 Missouri, and occupies all of Florida. Though non-migratory, it has strayed 

 to Michigan, Ohio, New York, and the Bahamas. 



THE PYGMY NUTHATCH 



The Pygmy Nuthatch inhabits the mountainous parts of the western United 

 States, from the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific and from 

 southern British Columbia to central Mexico. The few indi\dduals which 

 occur in southern California and northern Lower California have been sepa- 

 rated under the name White-naped Nuthatch (leucomicha) . While not strictly 

 non-migratory, its movements are scarcely more than a descending to the foot- 

 hills and the edge of the plains during the winter — even casually to South 

 Dakota and western Nebraska — whence it retires to the mountains for the 

 nesting season. 



Notes on the Plumage of North American Birds 



THIRTY-FIFTH PAPER 



By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



(See Frontispiece) 



White-breasted Nuthatch {Sitta carolinensis, Figs. 7, 8). — The Nut- 

 hatches, as a group differ but httle in plumage with sex, age, or season. In 

 our White-breasted Nuthatch the male in juvenal plumage is duller in color 

 than the adult. The crown is rather sooty, not glossy, shining black, and 

 there is less rusty brown in the lower tail-coverts; but at the post juvenal, or 

 first autumn molt, a new body plumage and wing-coverts are acquired, and 

 the bird then resembles the adult in winter plumage. There is no spring molt, 

 and the summer, or breeding plumage differs from that of winter only by being 

 more faded and worn. 



The juvenal female differs from the adult female much as the young male 

 does from the old male, and its plumage changes correspond to those of the 

 male. 



White-breasted Nuthatches are found throughout the greater part of 

 wooded North America, and southward to the end of the Mexican tableland. 

 North of Mexico we have, in addition to the White-breasted Nuthatch of 

 eastern North America, the following subspecies: 



Florida White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis atkinsi). — This race is 

 somewhat smaller than the northern form, the wing-coverts are more narrowly 

 margined with gray, and the female has the crown black, as in the male. 



