204 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



inhabiting the hill regions of India, Burmah, and the Malay 

 countries, which has merely a smaller and less compressed bill 

 than the true Sittce* 



Genus Sitta, Linn. 



Bill subcylindrical, a little compressed and at base depressed, 

 more or less stout and elongated, generally about the length of 

 the head, straight, pointed, with the lower mandible sometimes 

 tending a little upward towards its extremity ; nareal orifices 

 roundish, pierced in the base of the nasal membrane. Wings 

 capable of steady and sustained flight (not unlike that of the 

 Sturnidce), having the first quill short, the third, fourth, fifth, and 

 sometimes sixth, longest and subequal, and the second about 

 equalling the seventh. Feet having the middle and hind toes of 

 equal length, and the inner shorter than the outer ; the tarse not 

 equalling in length the hind toe with its claw. Plumage dense 

 and of rather open texture in most species, the plumelets of the 

 feathers unadhering; and the colours are generally grey above, 

 with a black cap or only sincipital streak, and more or less rufous 

 below, with wliite spots on the tail and its under-coverts. 



These are robust little birds, endowed with much energy. 

 The British species commonly alights high upon the bole of a 

 tree, not unfrequently uttering a loud, piercing, and several times 

 repeated chirp. It is seen chiefly in pairs, whereas the Dendro- 

 philce are commonly observed in small parties, and the Sittella: 

 sometimes in more numerous assemblages. Yet I have observed 

 it to be rather social than otherwise, at least during the winter, 

 at which season I have remarked one calling for more than an 

 hour to its companion that had been shot ; but in the pairing 

 season they become pugnacious, and I have then seen them fight 

 desperately on the wing. Among the remarkable habits of this 

 bird is that of firmly fixing a nut or beech-mast in some con- 

 venient crevice, and then, holding on with its strong feet and 

 swinging its body as upon a pivot, it will pierce the envelope with 

 sharply repeated blows of its bill ; and as the common English 

 Thrush {T. musicus) is observed to return often to the same 

 pebble in a garden walk, against which to break its snails, whose 



* There are some S. American birds which nearly approximate the 

 SittincE, even in colom- ; hut these have lengthened tarsi, a short hind toe, 

 graduated tail, and a curved tip to the upper mandible, seeming altogether 

 to indicate different (and it would appear Myiotherine) aflSnities. 



