388 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



tips ; the under parts, light rusty-fulvous, paler on the breast, and 

 albescent on the throat ; the frontal feathers tipped dingy-white, 

 and round the eye is whitish also ; middle tail-feathers lavender- 

 blue, with a black mesial line ; the rest black, edged internally 

 with blue, and tipped with duller blue ; the outermost feather 

 having a large white spot at the extremity of its inner web, and 

 the next one, a smaller terminal spot of the same. 



Bill blackish; legs greenish-horny, with yellow soles; irides 

 dark brown. 



Length 7^ inches ; wing 4 ; tail 2^ ; bill at front f ; tarsus | ; 

 hind-toe with claw 1. 



The 2nd quill is somewhat shorter than in other Sittae, and the 

 hind-claw perhaps less elongated ; but "it is otherwise a typical 

 Sitta, except in size and coloration. Bonaparte makes it a sub- 

 genus, Callisitta. 



This truly splendid Nuthatch has only been found in Sikhim, and 

 that very rarely. There is one specimen in the Asiatic Society's 

 Museum, none in that of the late E. I. C.'s I procured one example 

 only at Darjeeling, which was said to have been shot at an eleva- 

 tion of between 7,000 and 8,000 feet. Major Tickell informs me 

 that he obtained a single specimen at Darjeeling, which he shot in 

 the station itself. I imagine that it must be chiefly peculiar to the 

 higher regions. 



Gen. Dendrophila, Swainson, 



Char. — General structure of Sitta ; nostrils large, oval, open, 

 nearly naked, with a very few incumbent hairs ; base of bill 

 widened ; tip of the culmen slightly inclined downwards ; the foot 

 typical, with the hind-toe, if anything, larger. 



253. Dendrophila frontalis, Horsf. 



Sitta, apud Horsf., L. T. XIII. — Swainson, Zool. 111., 2nd Ser., 

 pi. 2 — Jerdon, Cat. 221 — Blyth, Cat. 1144 — Horsf., Cat. 

 1053 — Sitta velata, Tem., pi. col. 72, f. 3 — S. corallina, Hodgs. 



The Velvet-fronted Blue Nuthatch. 



Descr. — Above fine cerulean-blue, ■with a tinge of lilac on the 

 head ; forehead deep velvety black ; quills and lateral feathers 



