The Pygmy Nuthatches 
with brownish. Length 101.6 (4.00) or less; wing 65 (2.56); tail 34 (1.34); bill 14.2 
(.56): tarsus 15 (.59). 
Recognition Marks. —Pygmy size; top of head olive-gray, contrasting with 
plumbeous of back; gregarious habits. 
Nesting.— Nest: A hole in dead stub or dead top of pine tree, excavated by 
birds, smeared about entrance with pitch, and lined with soft substances,—grass, 
hair, and feather.s. Eggs: 5 to 8; pure white, flecked more or less heavily with red¬ 
dish brown. Av. size 15.8 x 11.4 (.62 x .45). Season: May 1-20; one brood. 
Range of S. pygmcea. —Western North America from southern British Columbia 
south, in the mountains, to Lower California and Mexico. 
Range of S. p. pygmcea. —As above, except southern California and Lower 
California. 
Distribution in California. —Locally distributed in high Upper Sonoran 
or Transitional areas, chiefly in the Sierra Mountains, and in northern ranges from 
Shasta to the Warners, and in the vicinit)' of Monterey (the type locality). Found 
also sparingly elsewhere in the southern humid coastal district north to Mendocino 
County. A slight movement, or none, to lower levels in winter. 
Authorities. — Vigors ( Sitta pygmcea), Zool. Voy. “Blossom,” 1839, p. 25, 
pi. 4, fig. 2 (orig. desc.; type locality, Monterey); Feilner, Ann. Rep. Smith. Inst, for 
1864 (1865), p. 426 (n. Calif., habits); Cones, Birds Col. Val., 1878, p. 139 (syn., desc., 
hist., habits, etc.); Fisher, N. Am. Fauna, no. 7, 1893, p. 137 (localities in Calif.): 
Beal, U. S. Dept. Agric., Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 30, 1907, p. 67 (food). 
No. 130a YVhite-naped Nuthatch 
A. 0 . U. No. 730a. Sitta pygmaea leuconucha Anthony. 
Description. —“Similar to 5 . p. pygmcea, but larger, especially the bill; color 
of pileum and hind-neck grayer, the latter with the buffy or pale buff spot decidedly 
larger: gray of back, etc., less bluish, and underparts less strongly buffy” (Ridgway). 
Adult male: wing 66.8 (2.63); tail 36.7 (1.45); bill 16.3 (.64); tarsus 16 (.63). 
Range of 5. p. leuconucha. — Resident in Transition and Lower Canadian zones 
in the mountain ranges of southern California, south to the San Pedro Martir Moun¬ 
tains, Lower California. 
Authorities. — Cooper, Am. Nat., vol. viii., 1874, p. 17 (Cuyamaca Mts., 
San Diego Co.) ; Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. v., 1908, p. 123 (San Bernardino 
Mts.; habits, desc. nest and eggs, etc .); Grinnell and Swarth, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., 
vol. x., 1913, p. 310 (San Jacinto Mts.; occurrence; crit.). 
AS FOR THE Pygmy, the pine tree is his home. It is not quite 
proper, however, to speak of this Nuthatch in the singular. Lilliputians 
must hunt in troops and make up in numbers what they lack in strength. 
Pygmy Nuthatches are not merely sociable; they are almost gregarious. 
Where a company of Kinglets would be content to straggle through a 
dozen trees, a pack of Pygmies prefers to assemble in one. Yet there 
is no flock impulse here, as with Siskins. Each little elf is his own master, 
and a company of them is more like a crowd of merry schoolboys than 
anything else. It’s “come on, fellers,” when one of the boys tires of a 
given tree, and sets out for another. The rest follow at leisure but 
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