560 
(93.) 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 
b. Top of head brown, the nape with a conspicuous white spot; middle tail- 
feathers without distinct basal spot of white. Young with top of head 
grayish, the wing-coverts and tertials edged with light fulvous. Length 
3.85-4.40, wing about 2.60, culmen .50-.60. Eggs .61 <x .50. Hab. South 
Atlantic and Gulf States, north, regularly, to lower Maryland and Vir- 
ginia (lower Potomac, shores of Chesapeake Bay, etc.), casually to Ohio, 
Michigan, Missouri, ete. 
729. S. pusilla Laru. Brown-headed Nuthatch. 
b%. Top of head grayish drab, or olive-gray ; white on nape concealed, or obso- 
lete; basal half, or more, of middle tail-feathers white, Young not 
obviously different from adults, but wing-coverts usually more or less 
distinctly edged with pale buffy. Length 3:80-4.55, wing about 2.60, 
culmen 60-65. Eggs .60 X .46. Hab. Western United States, north 
to northern border, east to, and including, Rocky Mountains, south to 
mountainous districts of Mexico. 
730. S. pygmea Vic. Pygmy Nuthatch. 
Gznus PARUS Linyaus. (Page 558, pl. CXXII., figs. 1, 3.) 
Species. 
Common CHaracters.—Above plain grayish or brownish (back sometimes dark 
rusty or chestnut), the top of head and hind-neck usually different in color from rest 
of upper surface (usually black); sides of head usually whitish; chin and throat 
often black or brown; rest of lower parts usually whitish medially, the sides and 
flanks buffy, rusty, grayish, or even chestnut. Nest in holes of trees or stumps, 
composed of soft felted materials, feathers, etc. Hggs 5-8, pure white, usually 
speckled with reddish brown. 
a}. Head conspicuously crested. (Subgenus Lophophanes Kavp.) 
. Throat white, or pale grayish; wing 2.75, or more. 
c. Forehead or crest black (except sometimes in young); flanks tinged 
with rusty. 
d'. Forehead sooty black (indistinctly so in young); crest gray, like 
back; beneath, including lores, dull white, the sides and flanks 
strongly washed with rusty. In winter, the upper parts, es- 
pecially back, tinged with olive, and white of lower parts 
tinged with brownish, especially across breast. Young simi- 
lar to adult, but gray of upper parts more brownish, black of 
forehead indistinct, or replaced by dull sooty brownish, and 
rusty of sides less distinct. 
é. Darker, with forehead black or dark sooty in adult; length 
5.65-6.50, wing 3.05-3.45 (3.24), tail 2.80-3.15 (2.96), ex- 
posed culmen .37—.45 (.41), tarsus .80-.85 (.83). Hggs .71 
x 55. Hab. Kastern United States (chiefly south of 40°, 
but occasionally to 42°), west to edge of Great Plains, 
