43 



RED-BELLIED BLACK-CAPT NUTHATCH. 



SITTA VARIA. 

 [Plate n.— Fig. 4.] 



Sitta Faria, Bart. p. 289. — Sitta Canadensis, Turton. — -Small Nuthatch, Lath. I, 651. 



THIS bird is much smaller than the last, measuring only four 

 inches and a half in length, and eight inches in extent. In the form 

 of its bill, tongue, nostrils, and in the color of the back and tail- 

 feathers it exactly agrees with the former; the secondaries are not 

 relieved with the deep black of the other species, and the legs, feet 

 and claws are of a dusky greenish yellow; the upper part of the 

 head is black, bounded by a stripe of white passing round the 

 frontlet; a line of black passes thro the eye to the shoulder; below 

 this is another line of white ; the chin is white ; the other under 

 parts a light rust color; the primaries and whole wings a dusky 

 lead color. The breast and belly of the female is not of so deep 

 a brown, and the top of the head less intensely black. 



This species is migratory, passing from the north, where they 

 breed, to the southern states in October, and returning in April. 

 Its voice is sharper, and its motions much quicker than those of 

 the other, being so rapid, restless and small, as to make it a diffi- 

 cult point to shoot one of them. When the two species are in the 

 woods together, they are easily distinguished by their voices, tlie 

 note of the least being nearly an octave sharper than that of its 

 companion, and repeated more hurriedly. In other respects their 

 notes are alike unmusical and monotonous. Approaching so near 

 to each other in their colors and general habits, it is probable that 

 their mode of building, &c. may be also similar. 



Buffi)n^s Torchepot de la Canada^ Canada Nuthatch of other 

 European writers, is either a young bird of the present species, in 



