SPECIES 3. SITTA PUSILLA. 

 BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH. 



[Plate XV. Fig. 2.] 



Sitta pusilla, LATH. Ind. Orn. 263 Small Nuthatch, CATESBY, 



Car. i, 22, upper figure. La Petite Sittelle 3 t?te brune, BUFF. 

 v, 474. BRISS. in, 598. LATH, i, 651. C. PEALE'S Museum, 



No. 2040. 



THIS bird is chiefly an inhabitant of Virginia, and the south- 

 ern states, and seems particularly fond of pine trees. I have 

 never yet discovered it either in Pennsylvania, or any of 

 the regions north of this. Its manners are very similar to those 

 of the Red-bellied Nuthatch, represented in Plate II of this 

 work; but its notes are more shrill and chirping. In the countries 

 it inhabits it is a constant resident; and in winter associates with 

 parties, of eight or ten, of its own species, who hunt busily 

 from tree to tree, keeping up a perpetual screeping. It is a 

 frequent companion of the Woodpecker figured beside it; and 

 you rarely find the one in the woods without observing or hear- 

 ing the other not far off. It climbs equally in every direction, 

 on the smaller branches, as well as on the body of the tree, in 

 search of its favourite food, small insects and their larvae. It 

 also feeds on the seeds of the pine tree. I have never met with 

 its nest. 



This species is four inches and a quarter long, and eight 

 broad; the whole upper part of the head and neck, from the 

 bill to the back, and as far down as the eyes, is light brown, or 

 pale ferruginous, shaded with darker touches, with the excep- 

 tion of a spot of white near the back; from the nostril through 

 the eyes the brown is deepest, making a very observable line 



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