140 SITTING. 



on the head ; throat and abdomen whitish, the latter barred with 

 .dusky ; tail banded and fuscous. 



The Spotted-grey Creeper has been obtained at Mount Aboo,; 

 it has not been recorded from any other portion of our limits, 



SUB-FAMILY, Sittinae. 



Bill of moderate length, nearly straight, stout, compressed at 

 the tip ; wings moderate ; tail short, even ; toes long and slender ; 

 outer- toe longest, syndactyle. 



GENUS, Sitta, Lin. 



Bill moderate, straight, wedge-shaped; tip entire, -barely ; de r 

 flexed ; nostrils basal, rounded, covered by setaceous tufts ; wings 

 rather long, first quill short, fourth and fifth equal and longest ; 

 tail short, ev^n, soft ; feet short, strong ; the inner-toe very 

 short ; outer nearly equal to the middle one, all 'cleft to the 

 base ; hind-toe long, equal to the tarsus ; claws strong, broad and 

 well curved. 



Sitta castaneiventris, Franklin. 



250. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 386. 



THE CHESNUT-BELLIED NUTHATCH. 



Length, 5'5 ; wing, 3'1 ; tail, 17 ; bill at front, 0'68. 



Bill horny-black ; irides brown ; legs plumbeous. 



Above greyish-plumbeous, lightest on the head and nape ; 

 stripe from the gape, through the eyes, to the nape, black ; 

 quills, with the inner webs of the feathers, black ; throat and 

 face white; breast and under tail-coverts, with the abdomen, 

 deep chesnut bay in the male, dark cinnamon color in the 

 female; the tail has the two central feathers grey, the rest 

 blackish; the outermost three on each side with large white 

 spots on the inner webs near the tip ; the outermost of all has 

 also a spot on the outer web near the base ; the two next the 

 uropygials are grey at the tip and on the outer web. 



The Chesnut-bellied Nuthatch occurs in most of the jungles of 

 Central India ; it is much more common on the Yindhian Range. 



GENUS, Dendrophila, Swainson. 



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 ; tha foot typical, 

 with the hind-toe, if anything, larger. 



Dendrophila frontalis, Horsf. 



253. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 388; Butler, Beccan ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 391. 



THE VELVET-FRONTED BLUE NUTHATCH. 

 Length, 5 ; extent, 8'5 ; wing, 3 ; tarsus, 0'9 ; tail, T5. 



