174 CEDAR WAX WING. 



are adnate at the base, and imbricated. The berries are oval, small, and of a 

 bluish colour. The wood is red, close-grained, very durable, and has a 

 strong scent. Its growth is extremely slow, and this circumstance, together 

 with the great destruction of the tree for various purposes, has rendered it 

 difficult to procure cedar-wood of tolerable size in the more accessible parts 

 of the country. 



FAMILY XXIII.— SITTINJE. NUTHATCHES. 



Bill of moderate length or rather long, straight, rather slender, conico- 

 subulate, somewhat compressed, with the tips acute, or cuneate. Head 

 ovate; neck short; body full. Tarsi rather short, or of moderate length, 

 slender, compressed, with seven or eight scutella; toes long, very slender; 

 hind toe extremely long; anterior little spreading; claws long, little arched, 

 slender, much compressed, acute. Plumage soft and full. Wings of mode- 

 rate length, broad, rounded. Tail short, broad, of twelve feathers. Roof 

 of upper mandible very narrow, slightly concave, with three ridges; tongue 

 very slender, Avith the tip abrupt and bristly; oesophagus without dilatation; 

 stomach roundish, moderately muscular; intestine short and wide; cceca very 

 small. Trachea simple; with a single pair of large inferior laryngeal 

 muscles. Allied to the Titmice on the one hand, and the Woodpeckers on 

 the other. 



Genus I.— SITTA, Linn. NUTHATCH. 



Bill rather long, or of moderate length, straight, conico-subulate, a little 

 compressed, rather obtuse; upper mandible with the dorsal outline very 

 slightly arched, the ridge rather narrow, the sides sloping, the edges sharp, 

 without notches, the tip rather blunt; lower mandible with the angle of 

 moderate length and narrow, the dorsal line ascending and very slightly 

 convex, the sides slightly convex, the tip narrow. Nostrils basal, round 

 operculate, partially concealed by the reversed bristly feathers. Head ovate; 



