DESCRIPTION OF SITTA CANADENSIS 13 7 



CH. SP. $ 9 Plumbeo-cwrulea, rectricibus mediis concoloribus r 

 lateralibus nigris albo maculatis, alls extns innotatis; infra fer- 

 ruginea; $ vertice cum lateribus capitis nlgris, striga frontali et 

 superciliari alba; 2 pileo dorso concolore. 



^, adult: Upper parts leaden-blue (brighter than in S. carol'metisis} , the 

 central tail-feathers the same ; wings fuscous, with slight ashy edgings and 

 concealed white bases of the primaries. Eutire under parts rusty-brown, 

 very variable in shade, from rich fulvous to brownish-white, usually palest 

 on the throat, deepest on the sides and crissum ; tail-feathers, except the mid- 

 dle pair, black, the lateral marked with white. Whole top and sides of 

 head and neck glossy black, that of the side appearing as a broad bar 

 through the eye from bill to side of neck, cut off from that of the head by a 

 long white superciliary stripe, which meets its fellow across the forehead. 

 Bill dark plumbeous, paler below ; feet plumbeous-brown. Length, 4-4 ; 

 extent, 8-8^; wing, 2; tail, 1 ; bill, ^. 



9 : Crown like the back; lateral stripe on the head merely blackish. The 

 under parts average paler than those of the $ , but there is no constancy 

 about this. Young birds resemble the 9 . 



Pennant, in the " Arctic Zoology ", makes a curious mistake in treating 

 of the Canada and Black-headed Nuthatches. His first species, no. 170, 

 called " Canada " Nuthatch, consists of the references to this species and 

 the description of the other one, and the figure on plate 13 unmistakably 

 represents carolinensis ; while under his no. 171, called " Black-headed" Nut- 

 hatch, he describes canadensis. He correctly distinguishes the two species but 

 inadvertently calls one the other. 



OUR knowledge of the distribution and movements of the 

 Canada Nuthatch lacks precision. As already said, it is 

 known to inhabit wooded portions of temperate North America,, 

 from one ocean to the other, and from Florida, Texas and 

 Arizona to Labrador and other portions of British America ; 

 but to what extent it is migratory within this large area, and 

 in what portions it is resident, or a summer or winter visitor, 

 we are still insufficiently informed. There appears to be little 

 doubt that, unlike its relatives, it is decidedly migratory ; yet 

 authors are singularly at variance in their accounts of its move- 

 ments. Wilson speaks of its leaving for the Southern States 

 in October, and returning again in April. Brewer alludes to 

 a flock which he saw in Massachusetts, May 20, which had 

 "evidently just arrived from the South". But Allen states 

 that it is chiefly a winter resident in Massachusetts, arriving 

 in October and departing in April. In the District of Colum- 

 bia, Coues and Preutiss say that it is a winter resident, from 

 early in October until May. Ridgway found it in the mount- 

 ains of Nevada in September and June. Such conflicting state- 



