Family SITTIDA. 
Genus SITTA. 
Sitta, Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 177 (1766). 
Ir appears to me that in habits as well as in structure the Nuthatches occupy a position very 
near the Titmice; and I have therefore placed them between the latter and the Creepers; but 
many authors have assigned to them a very different position. Keyserling and Blasius place 
them as I do, immediately after the Titmice; but Macgillivray places them between Upupa and 
Picus; whereas Degland and Gerbe separate them very far from both the Titmice and the Wood- 
peckers, bringing them in between the Kingfishers and the Creepers. Sundevall, on the other 
hand, makes a separate “cohors” of the Creepers and the Nuthatches, which he calls Certhio- 
morphe, and places it between the Altinares, or corvine birds, and the Chelidonomorphe or 
Swallows. 
The Nuthatches belonging to the genus Sitta inhabit the Palearctic and Nearctic Regions, 
ranging southwards into the Oriental Region and the northern portion of the Neotropical 
Region, whilst nearly allied genera belonging to the same family are found down into the 
Malay-archipelago and Australian subregions. Four species inhabit the Western Palearctic 
Region, the range of which is given in the articles on those species. 
In habits the Nuthatches are lively and active like the Titmice; but, unlike them, they move 
about the trunks of trees like the Creepers and Woodpeckers, without, however, using the tail as 
a support as those birds do; but they employ their strong, curved claws as a means of support, 
and may almost as often be seen climbing head foremost down a tree as head upwards. They 
feed on insects, which they search for amongst the rugged bark of large trees; and they are also 
partial to nuts, which they fix in a cleft in the bark of a tree, and perforate the shell with their 
powerful bills. 
They make their nest in the hole of a tree, which they plaster up with mud until only a 
small entrance-hole is left, and deposit white eggs spotted and blotched with red. In the form 
of their bills they approach somewhat to the Woodpeckers, and in the formation of the feet and 
claws they are nearly allied to the Creepers. 
Sitta europea, the type of the genus, has the bill rather long, slightly conical, with the 
point sharp or somewhat wedge-shaped, lower mandible with the angle rather short, the tip 
acute, gape-line straight ; tongue slender, abrupt, bristle-tipped; nostrils oblong, basal, exposed ; 
wings long, broad, the first quill very short, the second shorter than the sixth, the third, fourth, 
and fifth nearly equal, the fourth being longest; tail short, even; tarsus short, compressed, 
covered in front with four plates and three inferior scutelle ; feet large, strong, the three anterior 
united at the base as far as the second joint; claws long, curved, very acute, laterally grooved ; 
plumage soft and blended. 
167 
