LAND BIRDS. 683 
indescribably plaintive cadence like the soft sigh of the wind among the 
pine boughs. I can compare it to no other bird voice that I have ever 
heard” (Bull. N. O. C., IV, 1879, 206). 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Bill very slender, awl-shaped, strongly curved downward, and almost. needle pointed; 
the tail-feathers long, slender and stiff, resembling those of a woodpecker, and used as 
a support in the same way. 
Adult: Upper parts, from bill to lower back, dark brown, streaked with white, cach 
white streak more or less margined with black; lower back and rump bright rusty-red, 
obscurely streaked with brown; tail-feathers brown, unmarked; wings brown, crossed by 
two broad bars of buffy white; under parts from bill to tail pure white, or lightly margined 
with rusty on the under tail-coverts; sides of the head and neck mottled brown, black, 
and white, like the top of the head. The female is like the male in color but slightly 
smaller; there are no marked seasonal changes. 
Length 5 to 5.75 inches; wing 2.40 to 2.70; tail 2.30 to 2.90; bill .60 to .80. 
Family 69. SITTIDAS. Nuthatches. 
Two species occur regularly in the state, and a third, the Brown-headed 
Nuthatch, accidentally if at all. 
KEY TO SPECIES. 
A. Underparts mainly white or whitish. B, BB. 
B. Large, wing 34 inches or over. White-breasted Nuthatch. No. 
310. 
BB. Small, wing less than 3 inches. Brown-headed Nuthatch. (Ap- 
pendix.) 
AA. Under parts mainly rust red or buffy brown; wing less than 3 inches. 
Red-breasted Nuthatch. No. 311. 
310. White-breasted Nuthatch. Sitta carolinensis carolinensis Lath. (727) 
Synonyms: White-bellied Nuthatch, Carolina Nuthatch, Common Nuthatch, Sap- 
sucker.—Sitta carolinensis, Lath., 1790, and most other writers.—Sitta melanocephala, 
Vieill., 1819. 
Plate LXVIL and Figure 147. 
The bluish-gray upper parts with darker crown, pure white under parts 
and sides of head, and soft, dark tail, broadly marked with white, are 
characteristic. Add to this the straight, strong, slender bill and powerful 
feet, and the bird cannot be mistaken. In life its action is equally charac- 
teristic; only a nuthatch scrambles continually up and down tree trunks, 
sidles rapidly along the main branches or runs nimbly under and over 
them, as often head downward as otherwise. Its smaller relative, the 
Red-breasted Nuthatch, has a color pattern so different as to make any 
confusion unlikely. 
Distribution.—Eastern United States from Georgia north to the southern 
British Provinces and west to the Rocky Mountains. 
It is somewhat remarkable that a bird so abundant as the White-bellied 
Nuthatch should be so imperfectly known to the average resident of town 
