36 WHITE-BREASTED, BLACK-CAPPED NUTHATCH. 



Not only the plumage of the robin, as of many other birds, is 

 subject to slight periodical changes of colour, but even the 

 legs, feet, and bill ; the latter, in the male, being frequently 

 found tipt 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 the plate. 



WHITE-BBEASTED, BLACK-CAPPED NUTHATCH. 



(Sitta Carolinensis.) 



Plate II. Fig. 3. 



Catesb. i. 22, fig. 2.— Lath. i. 650, B.— 5ms. iii. p. 596, 4.— Sitta Carolinensis, 

 Turton. — Sitta Europea, Gray Black-capped Nuthatch, Bartram, p. 289. — 

 Peale's Museum, No. 20, 36. 



SITTA CAROLINENSIS.* 



Sitta Carolinensis, Bonap. Synop. 96. — Sitta melanocephala, Vieill. Gal. des Ols. 

 p. 280, pi. 174. 



The 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 black 

 hairs ; the tongue is of a horny substance, and ending in 



* The true nuthatches, Sittce (for I would not admit S. velata 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 found in Europe. With regard to 

 their situation in our systems, I would prefer placing them near to 

 Certhia, Neops, Anabates, Dendrocolaptes, and not far distant from the 

 titmice ; with the former, they seem intimately connected, and there 

 appears little in their structure in common with the woodpeckers, except 

 the act of running up the trunks of trees. In habit and general economy 

 they resemble the titmice, always actively employed in turning or twist- 

 ing round the branches, or in running up or down the trunks, for they 

 do both with equal facility, searching after the insects, or their eggs and 

 larvae, which lie concealed under the moss or loose bark ; but occasion- 

 ally also, like them, feeding upon different grains, on the seeds of the 

 pine cones, as mentioned by our author in his description of the red- 



