450 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



SUta carolinensis mexicana Nelson and Palmer (T. S.), Auk, xi, Jan.; 1894, 45 

 (Mount Orizaba, Puebla, Mexico; coll. U. S. Nat. Mus.).— Cox, Auk, xii, 

 1895, 358 (Mount Orizaba, 9,000 ft.).— Chapman, Bull. Am. Mus. N. H., 

 X, 1898, 39 (Las Vigas, Vera Cruz, 8,000 ft.). 



Slitta] carolinensis mexicana Hbllmayr, Tierreich, 18 Lief., 1903, 189. 



SITTA CANADENSIS Linnaeus. 

 RED-BREASTED NTJTHATCH. 



Adult nude in spring and summer. — Pileum uniform black, with a 

 faint bluish gloss; a broad white superciliary stripe (extending from 

 sides of forehead to sides of nape, narrower anteriorly); below this a 

 black stripe involving loral and upper portion of auricular regions and 

 continued, more broadly, over sides of neck; back, scapulars, rump, 

 upper tail-coverts, middle pair of rectrices, wing-coverts, and tertials 

 uniform bluish -gray or deep plumbeous; secondaries and primaries 

 dull slate color, with graj' edgings; rectrices (except middle pair) 

 black, tipped with gray, the two or three outermost with a sub- 

 terminal band (usually interrupted) or spot of white, both the gray 

 and white most extensive on lateral rectrix; suborbital and lower por- 

 tion of auricular regions and lower part of sides of neck white; chin 

 and upper throat duller white, gradually deepening posteriorly 

 through pale buflf on lower throat to tawny-buff or dull ochraceous- 

 buff on flanks, anal region, and shorter under tail-coverts, the longer 

 under tail-coverts paler buff' or buffy white, with concealed portion 

 pale gray; maxilla black; mandible dusky terminally, pale grayish 

 (pale bluish gray in life); iris brown; legs and feet horn color or 

 dusky (in dried skins). 



Adkilt male in autumn and winter. — Similar to the spring and sum- 

 mer plumage, but under parts more deeply colored (mostly ochraceous- 

 buff, deeper on flanks) and black of head more glossy. 



Adult female. — Similar to the adult male, but black of pileum and 

 hindneck replaced by plumbeous (usually darker than but sometimes 

 concolor with the color of the back), that of stripe on side of head 

 dull black or slaty, and under parts averaging slightly paler. 



Young male. — Essentially like the adult male, but black of head 

 much duller (without gloss) and less sharply defined. 



Young female. — Similar to the adult female, but gray of pileum 

 duller and less sharply defined laterally, and under parts paler and 

 duller. 



Adult ma^d.— Length (skins), 100-116 (107); wing, 66.5-70 (68.2); 

 tail, 35.5-39 (37.2); culmen, 13.5-17.5 (14.6); tarsus, 15-17 (16.1); mid- 

 dle toe, 11-13 (12). « 



o Twenty-two specimens. 



