120 



SITTID.E. 



Fig. 24. — Siiia himai 



Family SITTID^. 



The family of Sittidce, or Nuthatches, is one which it is not 

 easy to place in any system of arrangement of the Order Passeres. 

 Oates placed them between the Bulbuls {Pycnonotida>) and the 

 Drougos (Dicruridce), with neither of wliich can they have any 

 possible connection. Hartert places them between the Certhiidoi 

 and Parido', an excellent position, but making these three families 

 form a group entirely by themselves having no close connexion 

 with those which come before or after. In the present work 

 the preceding family, the Paradoxomitliido', is an obvious link 

 between the Parldcp. and the Timcdiidoi, and a position between 

 these families seems, perhaps, the best for the Sittido'. In many 

 ways they are closely allied to the Tits, especially anatomicallv, 

 and though they have not such close affinities with the Timcdiid<i\ 

 they may well be an offshoot from the Paridce, the other end of 



