186 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
sides and anal regions light brownish-chestnut; no whitish on wings or tail; tail 
nearly even, or slightly emarginate and rounded; lateral feathers about twenty one- 
hundredths inch shortest. 
Length, about five inches; wing, two and forty one-hundredths inches; tail, two 
and sixty-six one-hundredths inches. 
Hab. —North-eastern portions of North America to the North Atlantic States. 
This bird occurs in New England only in the most 
northern parts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, 
where it is sometimes resident. JI have never met with it 
alive, and will be obliged to avail myself of Audubon’s 
description of its habits, nest, &c. He says, in describing 
the nest : — 
“Tt was placed at the height of not more than three feet from 
the ground, in the hollow of a decayed low stump, scarcely thicker 
than a man’s leg; the whole so rotten that it crumbled to pieces on 
being touched. I cautiously removed the woody enclosure, and 
took possession of the nest, which I obtained in perfect order. It 
was shaped like a purse, eight inches in depth, two in diameter 
inside; its sides about half an inch thick. It was entirely com- 
posed of the finest fur of different quadrupeds, but principally of 
the great northern hare, so thickly and ingeniously matted through- 
out, that it looked as if it had been ‘felted’ by the hand of man. 
It was quite elastic throughout, and rather wider at the bottom, 
probably in consequence of the natural growth of the young.” 
This hardy little bird resembles in its manners the other 
species of its interesting and beautiful tribe: its notes 
resemble those of our southern Black-headed Titmouse, but 
are much weaker. 
Sub-Family Sirt1nz.— The Nuthatches. 
SITTA, Linnzvs. 
Sttta, Linnxus, Syst. Nat. 1735 (Agassiz). 
Bill subulate, acutely pointed, compressed, about as long as the head; culmen 
and commissure nearly straight; gonys convex and ascending; nostrils covered by a 
tuft of bristles directed forward; tarsi stout, scutellate, about equal to the middle 
toe, much shorter than the hinder, the claw of which is half the total length; outer 
