SITTID^: NUTHATCHES. 269 



bands meeting narrowly across the chin, and nearly meeting on the nape. Crown and nape 

 clear ash. Back hair-brown. Wings and tail fuscous, with narrow pale ashy edgings of tlie 

 feathers ; outer webs and tips of outer tail-feathers, and iimer webs of many wing-feathers, 

 whitish. Below, wlute, pure on throat and sides of neck, thence passing through laveuder- 

 gray to rusty-brownish on flanks and crissum. Bill and feet black ; iris brown. 9 unknown : 

 probably not (hfl'erent. Young quite similar, having glossy black on the liead before they are 

 fully f((athered, but the black does not at first meet on the cliin. Length about 4.00 ; wing 

 1.00 ; tail 2.25 ; bill 0.25, compressed, with very convex culmen and nearly straight under out- 

 hne ; tarsus 0.60; middle toe and claw 0.45. A neat little tom-thumb, native of Mexico, 

 N. to Arizona and probably farther, rare; I have seen but three specimens. 

 16. AURI'PAKUS. (Lat. aiwi, of gold, and ^jara.s, a tit; from the yellow head.) G-OLD-tits. Head 

 not crested. Wings pointed, the 2d quill being little shorter than the .3d ; the 1st spurious. 

 Tail little rounded, decidedly shorter than the wings. BUI not typically parine — extremely 

 acute, with straight or slightly concave under outline, and barely convex culmen, thus resem- 

 bling that of a Helminthophaga ; longer and slenderer than usual in Parince ; nostrils scarcely 

 concealed by the imperfect ruff. Tarsi relatively shorter than in the preceding genera. 

 Briglit colors on head (yellow) and wing (red). Plumage comparatively compact; sexes 

 alike, but young very different from the adult. Size very small. General form sylvicoUne. 

 Nest globular, woven. Eggs spotted. One species. 

 56. A. fla'viceps. (Lat. flaviceps, yellow-head.) Gold-tit. (J ? : Upper parts ashy ; under 

 parts whitish ; wings and tail dusky, with hoary edging. Whole head rich yellow. Lesser 

 wing-coverts chestnut-red. Bill dark plumbeous; feet plumbeous. Length 4.00-4.25; 

 wing 1.80-2.00; tail 1.75-2.25. Young without red on wing or yellow on head; thus obscure 

 objects, known, however, by their generic characters. Adults vary in having the yellow 

 heightened to orange, or dull and greenish ; the red sometimes htematitic; and the shade of 

 the ashy clear and pure, or dull and brownish. Valley of the Rio Grande and Colorado, and 

 Lower California ; abundant in chaparral, building in bushes a great globular nest of twigs, 

 lined with down and feathers; eggs 4-6, pale bluish speckled with brown, 0.60 X 0.45. 



4. Family SITTID^ : Nuthatches. 



Bill subcylindrical, tapering, compressed, slender, acute, nearly or about as long as the 

 head, culmen and commissure about straight, gonys long, convex, ascending (giving a sort of 

 recurved look to a really straight bill). Nostrils rounded, concealed by bristly tufts. Wings 

 long, pointed, with 10 primaries, the 1st very short or spurious ; tail much shorter than mngs, 

 broad, soft, nearly even ; tarsus shorter than the middle toe and claw, scuteUate in front ; toes 

 all long, with large, much curved, compressed claws ; 1st toe and claw abcjut equal to the 3d ; 

 2d and 4th toes very unequal in length. Plumage compact ; body flattened ; tongue horny, 

 acute, barbed. Nuthatches are amongst the most nimble and adroit of ci'eepers ; they scramble 

 about and hang in every conceivable attitude, head downwards as often as otherwise. This is 

 done, too, without any help fi'ora the tail, — the whole tarsus being often applied to the sup- 

 port. They are chiefly insectivorous, but feed also on hard fruits; and get their English name 

 from their habit of sticking nuts and seeds in cracks in bark, and hammering away with the 

 bill till they break the shell. They are very active and restless little birds, quite sociable, 

 often going in troops, which keep up a continual noise ; lay 4-6 white, spotted eggs, in hollows 

 of trees. The family, as conventionally framed, is a small one, of less than thirty species, 

 among them a single remarkable Madagascar form {Hypositta), a genus peculiar to Australia 

 (Sittella), and another confined to New Zealand (Acanthisitta) : but some of these (especially 

 Acanthisitta) may not be Sittidce at all, and in any event the family is chiefly represented by 

 the genus Sitta, with some fifteen species of Europe, Asia, and North America. 



