4 2 RED-BELLIED, BLACK-CAPPED NUTHATCH. 



in its imperfect plumage, or a different sort, that rarely visits 

 the United States. If the figure (PI. enl. 623) be correctly 

 coloured, it must be the latter, as the tail and head appear of 

 the same bluish grey or lead colour as the back. The young 

 birds of this species, it may be observed, have also the crown 

 of a lead colour 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 diffi- 

 cult to determine ; but I think it very probable that Sitta 

 Jamaicensis minor, Briss., the least loggerhead of Brown, 

 Sitta Jamaicensis var. t. st., Linn., and Sitta Canadensis of 

 Linnasus, Gmelin, and Brisson, are names that have been ori- 

 ginally applied to different individuals of the species we ar 

 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 directions, generally 

 accompanied by the former species, as well as by the titmouse, 

 Parus airicapillus, and the crested titmouse, Pants bicolor, 

 and not unfrequently by the small spotted woodpecker, Picas 

 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 



* 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 common than to see a whole troop of the 

 blue, marsh, cole, and long-tailed titmice, accompanied with a host of 

 golden- crested wrens, and perhaps a solitary creeper, proceed in the 



