446 Bird -Lore 



Slender-billed Nuthatch (Sitia c. aculeala). — The cap in the male of 

 this race is greenish black, the bill averages more slender, the black area on the 

 third tertial (from within) is usually pointed at the end. 



Rocky Mountain Nuthatch (Sitta c. nelsoni). — This race resembles the 

 Slender-billed Nuthatch, but is slightly longer and has more white on the tail 

 and more rusty on the flanks and lower belly. 



San Lucas Nuthatch {Sitta c. laguncE}. — Resembles the Slender-billed 

 Nuthatch, but has the wings and tail shorter, the black tips of the outer tail- 

 feathers more restricted. 



Red-breasted Nuthatch {Sitta canadensis, Figs. 5, 6.). — The plumage 

 changes of the Red-breasted Nuthatch are similar to those of the White- 

 breasted Nuthatch, though the young male has the crown blacker than in the 

 corresponding plumage of the White-breast, and the underparts are much 

 whiter, less rusty than in the adult. 



This 'Species is found through the greater part of northern North America, 

 and ranges well southward in the higher parts of the Sierras, Rockies and Alle- 

 ghanies, but throughout this wide area it shows no appreciable geographic 

 variation, but is everywhere simply the Red-breasted Nuthatch. 



Brown-headed Nuthatch {Sitta pusilla, Figs. 3, 4). — In this species the 

 sexes are alike. (The frontispiece is wrongly labeled. Fig. 3 represents the 

 adult, and Fig. 4 the juvenal plumage.) In juvenal plumage the crown is 

 brownish gray, the whitish nuchal spot less pronounced than in the adult, and 

 the underparts are washed with brownish buff. In this plumage the bird bears 

 an even closer resemblance to the Pygmy Nuthatch than the figure (Fig. 3) 

 in the frontispiece indicates. 



At the postjuvenal molt, the body feathers and wing-coverts are molted 

 and the bird acquires fully adult plumage. There is no spring molt, and the 

 differences shown by the summer plumage are due to wear and fading, the 

 brown crown being tipped with grayish brown, and the underparts losing the 

 buffy tint of the winter plumage. The Brown-headed Nuthatch is found only 

 in the southeastern United States, north to southern Delaware and west to 

 southern Missouri. There are no geographical races. 



Pygmy Nuthatch {Sitta pygmcea, Figs, i, 2). The plumage changes in 

 this species correspond to those of its ally, the Brown-headed Nuthatch. The 

 sexes are alike. (As with the Brown-headed Nuthatch, the caption of the 

 frontispiece is incorrect. Fig. i shows the adult; Fig. 2 the juvenal plumage.) 

 In juvenal plumage the crown is much like the back, but at the postjuvenal 

 molt the brownish crown of the adult is acquired. In worn summer plumage 

 this becomes grayer and the underparts are less buffy. 



The White-naped Nuthatch {Sitta pygmcea leuconucha) of the mountains 

 of southern California and northern lower California resembles the Pygmy 

 Nuthatch, but has the nape-patch more conspicuous, and the underparts 

 white, with little or no buff. 



