560 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



b l . Top of head brown, the nape with a conspicuous white spot ; middle tail- 

 feathers without distinct basal spot of white. Young with top of head 

 grayish, the wing-coverts and tertials edged with light fulvous. Length 

 3.85-4.40, wing about 2.60, culmen .50-.60. Eggs .61 X .50. Hob. South 

 Atlantic and Gulf States, north, regularly, to lower Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia (lower Potomac, shores of Chesapeake Bay, etc.), casually to Ohio, 

 Michigan, Missouri, etc. 



729. S. pusilla LATH. Brown-headed Nuthatch. 



6*. Top of head grayish drab, or olive-gray ; white on nape concealed, or obso- 

 lete ; basal half, or more, of middle tail-feathers white. Young not 

 obviously different from adults, but wing-coverts usually more or less 

 distinctly edged with pale buffy. Length 3.80-4.55, wing about 2.60, 

 culmen .60-.65. Eggs .60 X .46. Hab. Western United States, north 

 to northern border, east to. and including, Eocky Mountains, south to 

 mountainous districts of Mexico. 



730. S. pygmaea Ym. Pygmy Nuthatch. 



GENUS PARUS LINNAEUS. (Page 558, pi. CXXII., figs. 1, 3.) 



Species. 



COMMON CHARACTERS. Above plain grayish or brownish (back sometimes dark 

 rusty or chestnut), the top of head and hind-neck usually different in color from rest 

 of upper surface (usually black) ; sides of head usually whitish ; chin and throat 

 often black or brown ; rest of lower parts usually whitish medially, the sides and 

 flanks buffy, rusty, grayish, or even chestnut. Nest in holes of trees or stumps, 

 composed of soft felted materials, feathers, etc. Eggs 5-8, pure white, usually 

 speckled with reddish brown. 



a 1 . Head conspicuously crested. (Subgenus LophopJianes KAUP.) 

 b l . Throat white, or pale grayish ; wing 2.75, or more. 



c 1 . Forehead or crest black (except sometimes in young) ; flanks tinged 



with rusty. 



d 1 . Forehead sooty black (indistinctly so in young) ; crest gray, like 

 back ; beneath, including lores, dull white, the sides and flanks 

 strongly washed with rusty. In winter, the upper parts, es- 

 pecially back, tinged with olive, and white of lower parts 

 tinged with brownish, especially across breast. Young simi- 

 lar to adult, but gray of upper parts more brownish, black of 

 forehead indistinct, or replaced by dull sooty brownish, and 

 rusty of sides less distinct. 



e 1 . Darker, with forehead black or dark sooty in adult; length 

 5.65-6.50, wing 3.05-3.45 (3.24), tail 2.80-3.15 (2.96), ex- 

 posed culmen .37-.45 (.41), tarsus .80-.85 (.83). Eggs .71 

 X .55. Hab. Eastern United States (chiefly south of 40, 

 but occasionally to 42), west to edge of Great Plains, 



