Ai Slee DyAS ID) 
3. GENUS NEOSITTA HELLMAYR 
Sittella (nec Rafinesque 1815!) Swainson, Classif. of Birds, Vol. 2, p. 317 (1837) (Sp. typ. : S. chry- 
sopteva Latham). 
Neositta Hellmayr, Journ. f. Ornith. Vol. 49, p. 187 (1901) (nom. emend. pro Sittella preoccupied). 
Characters. — Bill extremely slender, decidedly shorter than head or tarsus, much 
compressed, at base much deeper than wide; culmen slightly ridged, nearly straight, its tip 
decidedly decurved, maxillary tomium with a very slight subterminal notch; gonys nearly 
straight for basal half, distinctly ascending terminally. Rictal bristles obsolete. Nostrils large, 
oval, operculate, entirely exposed, the slit-like nasal opening situated near lower edge of nasal 
fossa. Wing long, rather poimted; third and fourth primaries longest, fifth slightly shorter ; 
second about equal to fifth; first primary exceedingly small and narrow, equal to, or scarcely 
longer than, primary coverts; secondaries short, about two-thirds of whole wing, broadly 
rounded at tip; wing-tip much longer than tarsus. Tail about half as long as wing, very 
slightly rounded; rectrices with rounded tips. Tarsus decidedly shorter than middle toe 
without claw; acrotarsium booted, sometimes very indistinctly scutellate; proportion of toes 
exactly as in Sitta and Callisitta, but much slenderer and shorter. Size small, length of wing 
varying from 75 to 88, that of tail from 32 to 45 mm. 
Coloration. Above either light grey streaked with dusky (Australian species) or brown, 
streaked with blackish (New Guinean species); the rump and upper tail coverts mostly white; 
the pileun white, dark grey, or black; beneath whitish, either uniform, or with dusky streaks, 
especially on flanks; wings blackish, in the Australian species inner web of quills (except 
innermost secondaries) with middle portion cinnamon-rufous, buff or white, forming a broad 
transverse bar; rectrices blackish, the outer ones broadly tipped with white. Sexes different, 
in the black-headed species the female with much more black about the head than the male. 
Bill brownish horn colour, or yellow with black tip. Feet yellow. 
Geographical’ Distribution. Australia and New Guinea. Ten species and subspecies, 
two of which are Papuan. 
Habits and Nidification. Habits exactly like those of Sifta. The nest of the « Tree- 
runners », as they are called in Australia, is placed « like a filling of rubbish in an upright fork 
of a branch of an Eucalyptus tree, usually about 2 inches in thickness, and is built of bits of 
lichens, smoothly finished outside with little flakes of bark, glued on with mucus, to resemble 
natural bark ». The eggs, three or four in number, are light grey-green in colour with bold 
black blotches. 
KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF NEOSITTA 
1. Wings uniform dusky or nearly so, the third, fourth and fifth 
N 
Primaries only with a narrow white edge to the inner web 
— Wings with a broad white or pale vufous cyoss-band, the second 
third of the inner web of the primaries and secondaries being of 
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