Species II. SITTA VARIA. 



RED-BELLIED NUTHATCH. 



[Plate II. Fig. 4.] 



Sitta Canadensis, Briss. hi., p. 592. — Small Nuthatch, Lath, i., 651. — Sitta Varia, 



Bart. p. 289. 



This bird is mucb smaller than the last, measuring only four inches 

 and a half in length, and eight inches in extent. In the form of its 

 bill, tongue, nostrils, and in the color of the back and tail-feathers, it 

 exactly agrees with the former ; the secondaries are not relieved with 

 the deep black of the other species, and the legs, feet, and claws, are of 

 a dusky greenish yellow ; the upper part of the head is black, bounded by 

 a stripe of white passing round the frontlet ; a line of black passes 

 through the eye to the shoulder ; below this is another line of white ; 

 the chin is white ; the other under parts a light rust color ; the primaries 

 and whole wings a dusky lead color. The breast and belly of the female 

 is not of so deep a brown, and the top of the head less intensely black. 



This species is migratory, passing from the north, where they breed, 

 to the southern states in October, and returning in April. Its voice is 

 sharper, and its motions much quicker tlian those of the other, being so 

 rapid, restless and small, as to make it a difficult point to shoot one of 

 them. When the two species are in the woods together, they are easily 

 distinguished by their voices, the note of the least being nearly an oc- 

 tave sharper than that of its companion, and repeated more hurriedly. 

 In other respects their notes are alike unmusical and monotonous. Ap- 

 proaching so near to each other in their colors and general habits, it is 

 probable that their mode of building, &c., may be also similar. 



Buffon's Torcliepot du Canada, Canada Nuthatch of other European 

 writers, is either a young bird of the present species, in its imperfect 

 plumage, or a different sort that rarely visits the United States. If the 

 figure (PL Enl. 623) be correctly colored, it must be the latter, as the 

 tail and head appear of the same bluish gray or lead color as the back. 

 The young birds of this species, it may be observed, have also the crown 

 of a lead color during the first season ; but the tail-feathers are marked 

 nearly as those of the old ones. Want of precision in the figures and 

 descriptions of these authors, makes it difficult to determine; but I 

 think it very probable, that Sitta Jamaioensis minor, Briss. ; the Least 



(194) 



