BIRB8 OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 439 



conclusion in the matter, but also with those of Dr. Gadow." I must, 

 however, dissent from the views of those (Dr. Gadow among the 

 number) who would place the Madagascaran genus Hypositta^ among 

 the Sittidas, and W!)uld, without hesitation, place it in a distinct family, 

 Hyposittidse.'' 



The Nuthatches are a limited group of small, slender-billed, scanso- 

 rial Oscines, occupying, as above stated, an intermediate position 

 between the Paridse and Certhiidse, but apparently most nearly related 

 to the latter. Besides differing from the Parid^ in the structural 

 characters mentioned on pages 376, 377, they differ very much in their 

 scansorial habits, being perhaps the most expert "climbers" among 

 birds, running nimbly up or down the trunk of a tree or the face of a 

 cliff or stone wall, often head downward, which Woodpeckers and 

 creepers (Certhiidse) are unable to do. 



Leaving out the Australasian genus JVeositta, which may be regarded 

 as constituting a separate subfamily (Neosittinse), the Nuthatches com- 

 prise two genera (by some authors combined into one), of which Siiia 

 has representatives in all portions of the Palsearctic and Nearctic 

 regions, and as far south in the Indian region as Burmah, while 

 CalUsitta is peculiar to India, Ceylon, Java, Timor, and the Philip- 

 pines. The family is therefore chiefly an Old World one, especially 

 since of the twenty-two species of Sitta recognized by Dr. Gadow in 

 the British Museum "Catalogue" only four are American. 



Genus SITTA Linnseus. 



Silta LiNN^DS, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, i, 1758, 115 (Type, S. europsea Linnaeus). 

 Sittella (emendation!) Bafinesqde, Analyse de la Nat., 1815, 68. 



Sittidse with non-operculate nostrils, concealed by antrorse bristly 

 latero-frontal plumules; rictal bristles obvious; upper parts bluish 

 gray, with or without black on head; tail marked with both black and 

 white. 



Range. — Temperate portions of northern hemisphere. (Nearly 

 forty known species and subspecies.) 



o Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, viii, 340. 



^HypodUa Newton, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1881, 438 (type, Hypherpes corallirostris 

 Newton). 



"The characters of which are as follows: 

 a. Maxilla uncinate at tip, with tomium distinctly notched subterminally, the man- 

 dibular tomium also notched near tip; hallux (without claw) nearly as long as 

 middle toe (without claw) ; outer toe very nearly as long as middle toe and united 

 to the latter for the whole of the basal and half of its subbasal phalanges; inner 

 toe only about half as long as outer; acrotarsium booted; tail three-fourths as 



long as wing Hyposittidae. 



aa. Maxilla not uncinate at tip and neither maxillary nor mandibular tomia notched; 

 hallux (without claw) decidedly shorter than middle toe (without claw); 

 outer toe decidedly shorter than middle toe and united to the latter for not 

 more than the basal phalanx; inner toe three-fourths as long as outer toe; 

 acrotarsium scutellate; tail about half as long as wing Sittidse. 



