24 WHITE- 8REASTED, BLACK-CAPPED NUTHATCH. 
account of their 10te—and by others, the American Fieldfares; that 
they make their appearance at Churchill River about the middle of 
May, and migrate to the south early in the fall. They are seldom 
seen there but in pairs; and are never killed for their flesh, except by 
the Indian boys.* 
Several authors have asserted, that the red-breasted Thrush cannot 
brook the confinement of the cage, and never sings in that state. 
But, except the Mocking Bird, (Z'urdus polyglottus,) I know of no 
native bird which is so frequently domesticated, agrees better with 
confinement, or sings in that state more agreeably than the Robin. 
They generally suffer severely in moulting time, yet often live toa 
considerable age. A lady, who resides near Tarrytown, on the banks 
of the Hudson, informed me, that she raised and kept one of these 
birds for seventeen years ; which sung as well, and looked as spright- 
ly, at that age as ever; but was at last unfortunately destroyed by a 
cat. The morning is their favorite time for song. In passing through 
the streets of our large cities, on Sunday, in the months of April and 
May, a little:after daybreak, the general silence which usually prevails 
without at that hour, will enable you to distinguish every house 
where one of these songsters resides, as he makes it then ring with 
his music. 
Not only the plumage of the Robin, as of many other birds, is sub- 
ject to slight periodical changes of color, but even the legs, feet, and 
bill; the latter, in the male, being frequently found tipped and ridged 
for half its length with black. In the depth of winter, their plumage is 
generally best; .at which time the full-grown bird, in his most perfect 
dress, appears as exhibited in Fig. 5. 
a 
, 
WHITE-BREASTED, BLACK-CAPPED NUTHATCH. — 
SITTA CAROLINENSIS. — Fic. 6. 
Catesb. i. 22, fig. 2. — Lath. i. 650, B. — Briss. iii. p. 596, 4. — Sitta Carolinensis 
Turton.—Sitta Europea, Gray Black-capped Nuthatch, Bartram, p. 289.— 
Peale’s Museum, No. 20, 36. 
SITTA CAROLINENSIS.t 
Sitta Carolinensis, Bonap. Synop. 96.— Sitta melanocephala, Vieill. Gal. des Ois. 
p. 280, pl. 174, 
Tue bill of this bird is black, the upper mandible straight, the 
lower one rounded upwards towards the point, and white near the 
base; the nostrils are covered with long, curving, b!eck hairs; the 
* Journey to the Northern Ocean, p. 418, quarto. Lond. 1795. 
t The true Nuthatches, Sitte, (for I would not admit S. veluta of_Horsfield, and 
some allied species, nor the S. chrysoptera from New Holland,) are all natives of 
Europe and South America. With this restriction of geographical distribution, the 
genus will contain only four species, three of which, S. Carolinensis, Canadensis, 
and pusilla, figured and described by our author, are confined to North America ; 
and the fourth, S. Europea, has been only foun: in Europe. With regard to their 
