282 BIRDS. 
a golden-green spot on the throat; three feathers from each ear ex- 
tended into long filaments, terminated by a small disk of barbs of 
the same colour as the spot on the throat*. 
Others again have no filaments, nor are the feathers of the flanks elon- 
gated. In 
P. superba, Sonnerat, 96; Enl. 632; Vaill. 14; Vieill. 7; Ga- 
ler. 98+}, the feathers of the scapulars are prolonged, however, into 
a kind of mantlet which can be laid so as to cover the wings, and 
those of the breast like a sort of pendent and forked coat-of-arms. 
With the exception of this latter, which is of a brilliant burnished 
steel-green, the whole of the plumage is black. 
P. aurea, Sh.; Oriolus aureus, Gm.; Edw. 112; Vaill. 18; 
Vieill. 11, has none of the preceding extraordinary developments of 
plumage, and is only distinguishable by the velvet feathers which 
cover its nostrils. The male is of the brightest orange; the throat, 
and primary quills of the wings, black; in the female, a brown takes 
place of the orange f. 
———— 
FAMILY IV. 
—~— 
TENUIROSTRES. 
Tuts family comprehends the remaining birds of the first division; 
those in which the bill is slender, elongated, sometimes straight, and 
sometimes more or less arcuated, and without any emargination. They 
are to the Conirostres nearly what the Motacille are to the other Den- 
tirostres. 
Sitta, Lin. 
The Nuthatches have a straight, prismatic, pointed bill, compressed near 
the point, which they employ like the Woodpeckers to perforate the bark 
of trees, and in withdrawing the larve contained in it; but their tongue 
is not extensible, and, although they climb in every direction, they have 
but one toe behind, which, it is true, is a strong one. The tail is of no 
use in supporting them, as is the case with the Woodpeckers and True 
Creepers. There is but one in France. 
S. europea, L.; Enl. 623,1; Naum. 139. (The European Nut- 
# This species constitutes the genus PAROTIA, Vieill. Gal. 97. 
+ This species forms the genus Lopnorina, Vieill. Gal. 98. 
t I refer the Parad. gularis, Lath., or nigra, Gm.; Vaill. 20 and 21; Vieill. 8, 9, 
and the leucoptera, Lath. to the Thrushes;—the Par. Chalybea, Enl. 633; Sonn. 97; 
Vaill. 23; Vieill. 10, to the Cassicans;—the cirrhata, Aldroy. 814, is too much muti- 
lated to be characterized, and the furcata, Lath., appears to be an imperfect spe- 
cimen of the superba. 
