SITTA 189 



The colouration of the under parts varies in tone according to 

 locality. British specimens are as a rule dullest, though occas- 

 ionally one is as brightly coloured as any ; and those from Italy 

 and Asia Minor have the under parts most brightly coloured. 

 Sitta simnsis, which inhabits China and eastern Tibet, is said to 

 differ from the European bird, merely in being somewhat 

 smaller in size. 



Seebohm named a form which he says inhabits Pomerania 

 the Baltic provinces, Poland, and the Crimea, Sitta komeyeri, as 

 being intermediate between S. cccsia and S. europcea, but after 

 an examination of his specimens and those in my collection it 

 seems to me that this form cannot be separated from S. europcea. 

 It has the abdomen tinged with cream colour, and I have 

 examined Scandinavian examples of X cMropcea, which also 

 have the abdomen slightly washed with cream colour. 



281. KRUEPER'S NUTHATCH. 

 SITTA KRUEPERI. 



Sitta Jcrueperi, von Pelz. Sitz. kaiserl. Akad. Wissensch, Wien. xlviii. 

 Abth. i. p. 149 (1863) ; Sclater, Ibis. 1865. pi. vii ; Dresser, iii. 

 p. 189, pi. 121 ; Gadow, Cat. B. Br. Mus. viii. p. 350. 



< ad. (Smyrna). Upper parts slaty blue, the forehead black to the 

 centre of the crown ; quills brown externally margined with slate-blue ; 

 central tail-feathers like the back, the rest black tipped with grey, and 

 with white subterminal spots ; lores and an indistinct line through the 

 eye black ; cheeks, throat, and sides of head white, rest of the under 

 parts dull slate-grey ; a large crescentic patch on the breast chestnut-red ; 

 thighs and under tail-coverts marked with rusty red ; bill dark horn, 

 lighter at base ; legs slate-grey ; iris brown. Culmen 0'6, wing 2'9, tail 

 1-5, tarsus 0'65 inch. Female similar but is duller in colour, and the 

 young bird lacks the black on the forehead, and the stripe through the eye 

 is greyish. 



Hob. Asia Minor, Palestine, and Syria. 



In habits it is active and restless, and resembles our Euro- 

 pean bird or the Tree- Creeper. It has a variety of call-notes, 

 one not unlike the call-note of a canary, and another not unlike 

 the monotonous note of Parus major, but more guttural. It 

 feeds on insects and their larvae, and seeds, especially those of 

 conifers, and is most often seen in conifer woods. Unlike Sitta 

 ccesia, it does not plaster up a hole to form its nest, but hacks a 

 hole in a rotten branch or tree stump, which it lines with dry 

 grass, hair, thistledown, and feathers, and deposits in May 4 to 



