138 



In the British Museum there are specimens of the present species from the Bolan Pass, 

 Kandahar, Kojuk, and Kashgar. Dr. Aitchison (fide Sharpe, Trans. Linn. Soc. 2nd ser., Zoology, 

 v. p. 77) met with it in Afghanistan, where, he says, it was " very common and characteristic of 

 the sandstone rocks in the Badghis." 



SevertzofF records it from Turkestan ; and Mr. Pleske writes (Revis. Turk. Ornis, p. 42) as 

 follows : — " On the Iskander-kul this species was found breeding ; specimens were sent from 

 Kschtut and Margusaar, and it was observed in all parts of the Western Tian-shan where bare 

 rocks occur." 



I observe that Dr. Gadow gives Palestine as a locality where this Nuthatch is found ; but 

 this I doubt, as I have never seen a specimen from there, and Canon Tristram refers all those 

 in his collection, which he procured in Palestine, to Sitta neumayeri. 



In habits and nidification the present species appears to assimilate closely with Sitta 

 neumayeri. Mr. Blanford says (E. Pers. ii. p. 225) that it " keeps entirely to the rocky parts of 

 the country, and I have myself only observed it upon the hills of nummulitic limestone which 

 occupy so large an area in the neighbourhood of Shiraz. I am inclined to think that I have 

 seen it on the cretaceous limestone a little further north, but I did not observe it in Baluchistan. 

 .... Its presence, wherever it occurs, is soon made known by its loud voice. It is certainly 

 one of the noisest of birds, its call consisting of a rapid repetition of one note. Usually it keeps 

 to the rocks, but I have seen it on several occasions settle on trees, and even hunt over the stems 

 like the common Nuthatch ; indeed I shot one specimen at Niriz whilst thus occupied. Its food 

 also is partly vegetable, for I found plumstones in the stomach of one bird." 



As the present species differs from Sitta neumayeri chiefly in size and in the paler coloration 

 of the upper parts, I have not deemed it necessary to figure it. 



Since vol. viii. of the ' Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum' (in which the Nuthatches 

 were included) was published, twelve years have elapsed, during which much has been written 

 on this family, and at least two good species have been discovered amongst those inhabiting the 

 Paleearctic Region. It may therefore prove of interest to make a few remarks on what has been 

 written on the subject during these twelve years, confining my observations to those species 

 which occur within that Region. 



Sitta europwa, Linn. (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. viii. p. 342). So far as the Western Palsearctic 

 Region is concerned this form alone occurs, and the eastern form, Sitta uralensis, Licht., is not 

 found within our limits. I have examined a considerable series from various localities, and find 

 that all are referable to true S. europcea. In my own collection I have examples from Scandinavia 

 which have the underparts, excepting the flanks, pure white, and others which have the abdomen 

 tinged with cream-colour. In Siberia, however, and further east to Japan, one finds specimens 

 which have the underparts pure white, the flanks with the chestnut paler, and smaller in size, 

 and others again which have the entire abdomen ochraceous, and these forms have been 

 subspecifically separated by the different authors on Asiatic birds as follows: — • 



Sitta uralensis, Licht., Gadow, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. viii. p. 342 (Sitta baicalensis, Taczanowski, 

 Bull. Soc. Zool. Fr. 1882, p. 383), which differs from true S. europaza in being smaller, having 

 the underparts always pure silky white, the chestnut on the flanks paler. Culmen 0*8 inch, 

 wing 3T5, tail T7. — Hah. Eastern Siberia to the Amoor aird the whole of Dauria. 



