276 VERTEBRATA. AVES. 



FAM. III. TENUIROSTRES.* 



In this division the bill is more or less slender, 

 and often lengthened ; it is generally, however, firm 

 and strong in texture, and is chiefly used for probing 

 crevices in the bark of trees, holes in walls or pales, 

 or deep-tubed flowers. Many of the genera are re- 

 markable for the celerity of their motions, their 

 great power of wing, their splendid hues, and their 

 diminutive size. They are all insect-eating birds, 

 but some of the genera suck the nectar of flowers 

 also. 



Sitta, the Nuthatch. 



Much resembling in habits the true climbing birds, 

 the Nuthatches have still but one of the toes di- 

 rected backwards, which is, however, much developed. 

 Some naturalists, indeed, have preferred to place 

 both this and the following genus with the Climbers, 

 attaching greater weight to the instincts and habits 

 than to the structure, and probably this is the more 

 natural arrangement. The Nuthatches are thick, 

 stoutly built birds, with a straight, pointed or wedge- 

 form bill, with which they probe the fissures of trees, 

 or scale off pieces of the bark to procure the mi- 

 nute insects which are there concealed. While thus 

 engaged, they hop along with great agility and ease 

 on the perpendicular trunk, frequently ascending 

 in a spiral line, till near the top, when they shoot 



* Tenuis, slender, and rostrum, a beak. 



