SITTA 187 



amongst the crannies of the bark for its insect-food. It is 

 generally seen singly or in pairs even in the winter, when it 

 wanders about from place to place. It frequents woods, groves, 

 .and gardens, but does not affect pine-woods. Its call-note is a 

 clear psitt, psitt, and in the spring it has a note not unlike the 

 whistle of a curlew. It feeds on insects and their larvae, and 

 in the winter, seeds and nuts, of which it is very fond, and not 

 unfrequently lays up a store for winter use, and generally has a 

 favourite hole in a branch where it fixes the nut and cracks it 

 with its powerful bill. It nests in the hole of a tree, which it 

 plasters up with clay, leaving a suitably large entrance hole, 

 and in April or May deposits 6 to 9 eggs, which are white, more 

 or less boldly spotted and blotched with bright red, in size 

 averaging about 0*8 by 0'6. 



278. SUBSP. SITTA URALENSIS. 



Sitta uralensis, Licht. in Gloger's, Handb. Vogel, Deutschl, pp. 377, 388 

 (1834) ; Gadow, Cat. B. Br. Mus. viii. p. 342 ; Tacz. F. O. Sib. O. 

 p. 199 ; S. asiatica, Temm. Gould, B. of E. iii. pi. 236. 



jj ad. (Siberia). Differs from S. europcea in having the under parts 

 purer white, and less chestnut on the flanks, the hoary margin bordering 

 the upper part of the black ocular stripe more distinct and is as a rule 

 smaller. Culmen 0'67, wing 3'25, tail 1-8, tarsus 0'75 inch. 



Hob. Siberia, south to Lake Baikal, and Japan. 



This subspecies varies according to locality, and has been 

 considerably subdivided by those ornithologists who go in for 

 splitting. Western specimens are, as a rule, the largest, and 

 approach nearest to true Sitta europcea. Taczanowski makes 

 two subspecies, Sitta baicalensis and Sitta albifrons of the form 

 inhabiting Siberia, the former of which I take to be true 

 S. uralensis, as he describes it, as having no white on the 

 forehead, and the latter, which has the forehead and superciliary 

 stripe white, is the form found in Japan. 



In habits and nidification this bird does not differ from 

 europcea. 



279. SUBSP. SITTA AMURENSIS. 



Sitta amuremis, Swinhoe, P.Z.S. 1871, p. 350 ; Gadow, Cat. B. Br. 

 Mus. viii. p. 345 ; Pleske, Prjevalsky's Reisen. ii. p. 173, Taf. ix. 

 fig. 3. 



Kimawari, Jap. 



Ad. (Japan). Differs from S. europcea in having the sides of the breast, 

 axillaries, abdomen, and flanks ochraceous buff, the flanks washed with 

 chestnut. Culmen 0'75, wing 3'2, tail 1*75, tarsus 0*72 inch. 



