126 



LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE NUTHATCHES. FAMILY SITTID^. 



These little birds hold an intermediate position between tl 

 Creepers and the Tits. They have a soft tail like the latter, 

 not a spiny tail like the Creepers, and they differ from both 

 the above-mentioned families in having a wedge-shaped and 

 Woodpecker-like bill, with which they are enabled to hamme 

 and prise off the bark of trees in a manner which would n< 

 disgrace their larger Picarian relatives. 



The Nuthatches are chiefly inhabitants of the northern parts 

 of both Hemispheres, extending in America as far south as! 

 Mexico ; and, in the Old World, they are plentifully represented! 

 in the Himalayas, while in the mountains of Burma the largest; 

 known species of the genus, Sitta magna, is found. In the 

 Indian region an allied genus, Dendrqphila, is plentifully dis-; 

 tributed, finding in Madagascar an outlying and isolated repre-i 

 sentative in the genus Hypositta, while in Australia and New 

 Guinea occurs the genus Sitella. 



THE TRUE NUTHATCHES. GENUS SITTA. 



Sitta^ Linn., Syst. Nat., i., p. 177 (1766). 



Type, S. europcea, Linn. 



Of the European Nuthatches there are four species, two 

 which are southern and two northern. Of the former, both| 

 of which are black-headed, Sitta krueperi is an inhabitant 

 Asia Minor, and Sitta whiteheadi of the high pine-forests 

 Corsica. Of Sitta ccesia, the distribution is given below, am 

 Sitta europcza with certain variations extends from Scandi- 

 navia, across Asia, to Kamtchatka. 



I. THE NUTHATCH. SITTA CJESIA, 



(Plate XIV.) 

 Sitta europaa. Lath., Ind. Orn., i., p. 261 (1790); Macg., Br. 



B., in., p. 48 (1840) ; Newt. ed. Yarr., i., p. 473 (1873) 



Wyatt, Brit. B., pi. 9, figs, i, 2 (1894). 

 Sitta ccesta, Meyer; Dresser, B. Eur., iii., p. 175, pi. 119(1873) 



B. O. U. List Br. B., p. 28 (1883); Seeb., Brit. B., i. 



p. 523 (1883); Gadow, Cat. B. Brit. Mus., viii., p. 34;! 



(1883); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B., pt. viii. (1888); Saundersj 



Man., p. 105 (1889); Wyatt, Brit. B., pi. 9, fig. i (1894) 



