28 RED-BELLIED, BLACK-CAPPED NUTHATCH. 
black passes through the eye to the shoulder; below this is another 
line of white; the chin is white; the other under parts a light rust 
color, the primaries and whole wings a dusky lead color. The breast 
and belly of the female are not of so deep a brown, and the top of 
the head is less intensely black. 
This species is migratory, passing from the north, where they breed, 
to the Southern States in October, and returning in April. Its voice 
is sharper, and its motions much quicker than those of the other, being 
so rapid, restless, and small, as to 1nake it a difficult point to shoot 
one of them. When the two species are in the woods together, they 
are easily distinguished by their voices, the note of the least being 
nearly an octave sharper than that of its companion, and repeated 
more hurriedly. In other respects, their notes are alike unmusical 
and monotonous. Approaching so near to each other in their colors 
and general habits, it is probable that their mode of building, &c., 
may be also similar. ‘ 
Buffon’s Torchepot de la Canada (Canada Nuthatch of other Euro- 
pean writers) is either a young bird of the present species, in its 
imperfect plumage, or a different sort, that rarely visits the United 
States. If the figure (PI. enl. 623) be correctly colored, it must be 
the latter, as the tail and head appear of the same bluish gray or lead 
color as the back. The young birds of this species, it may be ob- 
served, have also the crown of a lead color during the first season ; 
but the tail-feathers are marked nearly as those of the old ones. 
Want of precision in the figures and descriptions of these authors 
makes it difficult to determine; but I think it very probable, that 
Sitta Jamaicensis minor, Briss., the Least Loggerhead of Brown, Sitia 
Jamaicensis var. t. st. Linn., and Sitta Canadensis of Linneus, Gmelin, 
and Brisson, are names that have been originally applied to different 
individuals of the species we are now describing. 
This bird is particularly fond of the seeds of pine-trees. You may 
traverse many thousand acres of oak, hickory, and chestnut woods, 
during winter, without meeting with a single individual; but no 
sooner do you enter among the pines than, if the air be still, you have 
only to listen for a few moments, and their note will direct you where 
to find them. They usually feed in pairs, climbing about in all di- 
rections, generally accompanied by the former species, as well as by 
the Titmouse, Parus atricapillus, and the Crested Titmouse, Parus 
bicolor, and not unfrequently by the Small-spotted Woodpecker, Picus 
pubescens; the whole company proceeding regularly from tree to 
tree through the woods like a corps of pioneers ; while, in a calm day, 
the rattling of their bills, and the rapid motions of their bodies, 
thrown, like so many tumblers and rope-dancers, into numberless 
positions, together with the peculiar chatter of each, are altogether 
very amusing; conveying the idea of hungry diligence, bustle, and 
activity.* Both these little birds, from the great quantity of destruc- 
« 
* It is curious to remark the similarity, as it were, in the feeling and disposition 
of some species. In this country, during winter, when the different kinds have laid 
aside those ties which connected them by sexual intercourse, nothing is more com- 
mon than to see a whole troop of the Blue, Marsh, Cole, and Long-tailed 'Titmice, 
accompanieil with a host of Golden-crested Wrens, and perhaps a solitary Creeper, 
proceed in the manner here mentioned, and regularly follow each other, as if 12 
