FAM. SITTID& 
BY C. E. HELLMAYR 

AE or very slightly rounded; rectrices broad, with rounded tip; first primary less 
than one-third as long as second. 
Characters. Bill straight, shorter than, or nearly as long as, head; culmen rounded or 
slightly ridged, very little, if anything, decurved terminally; gonys more or less ascending 
terminally. Nostrils roundish, or oval, either non-operculate (Sitta, Callisitta), or distinctly oper- 
culate (Neositta, Daphaenositta), in the former case sometimes (Siéta) partly concealed by antrorse, 
latero-frontal plumules, in the latter entirely exposed. Rictal bristles either obsolete, or if 
distinct, short and rather soft. Wing long, rather pointed; third and fourth, or third, fourth, and 
fifth primaries longest; second primary equal to, or slightly longer than, seventh (Sitta, Callisitta), 
or equal to fifth (Neositta); first primary very small, never one-third as long as second, some- 
times scarcely exceeding primary coverts; wing-tip conspicuously longer than tarsus, Tail 
about half as long as wing, sometimes slightly longer, sometimes much shorter, even or slightly 
rounded; rectrices broad with rounded tip, shafts never projecting nor acuminate. Tarsus 
sometimes longer, sometimes shorter than middle toe (without claw); the acrotarsium either 
distinctly scutellate (Sitta, Callisitta), or booted (Neositta); lateral toes very unequal, the inner 
(without claw) reaching only to second joint of middle toe, the outer reaching to middle of 
penultimate phalanx of middle toe; basal phalanx of middle toe united to outer toe for greater 
part of its length, to inner toe for a less distance; hallux (without claw) equal to outer toe 
(without claw), its claw decidedly shorter than the digit. 
