PSALTRIPAKUS MELA NOTES— SITTA ACULEATA. 415 



PSALTEIPAEUS MELAJfOTIS.'? 



Black-cared Titmouse. 



Parus mclanotis, Hautlaub, Rev. Zool., ISU, 210. 



Psaltriparus melanotis, BoNAP., Comp. Keiid., 18.j4, — .— Baird, B. N. Am., ISoS, 



38G, 1)1. Liii, fig. 3; Cat. N. Am. B., 1859, No. 297; Review, 18G4, 84.— B. B. 



& R., Hist. N. Am. B., I, 1874, 108, pi. Tii, fig. 8. 



On the 4th of Augu.st, 1868, we saw near our camp, on the eastern 

 slope of the Ruby Mountains, what was unquestionably a bird of this 

 species, since the black patch on the ear-coverts was distinctly visible. Its 

 restless movements made ineffectual oiir attempt to shoot it, and before we 

 were prepared for another shot it disappeared among the cedar trees, and 

 could not be found again. This we believe is the first known instance of 

 its occurrence within the limits of the United States, though it has been 

 obtained near our border, and is a common bii'd of the high mountain 

 portions of northern Mexico; but it probably occurs in greater or less 

 numbers, in suital)le places, throughout our southern Rocky Mountains. 



Family SITTID^E— Nuthatches, 

 sitta carolinensis. 



White-bellied Niithatcli. 



/?. aeuleata — Slender-billed Nuthatch. 



Sitta aeuleata, Cassin, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philad., 18.5G, 254.— Baird, B. N. Am., 

 1858, 375, pi, xxxiii, fig. 3; Cat. N. Am. B., 1859, No. 278; Review, 1864, 

 86. — Cooper, Oru. Cal., 54. 



Hitta carolinensis var. aeuleata, Allen, Bull. Mas. Comi). Zool., 1872, 174. — Coues, 

 Key, 1872, 83; Check List, 1873, No. 38a; B. N.W., 1874, 24.— B. B. & R., 

 Hi.st. N. Am. B., I, 1874, 117, pi. Viii, fig. 2 (bill only).— Henshaw, 1875, 173. 



Being strictly a pinicoline species, this Nuthatch was observed in 

 abundance only on the Sierra Nevada, being comparatively rare on the 

 Wahsatch and Uintah mountains, while none were seen in the intervening 

 region, not even among the most extensive cedar and piiion woods. In 

 its manners it is a counterpart of the eastern form, but its notes are mark- 

 edly different, being much weaker, and some of them of another character 



