134 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
130. SITTA FRONTALIS. 
THE VELVET-FRONTED NUTHATCH. 
Sitta frontalis, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 162. Sitta corallina, Hodgs. 
J. A. S.B. V. p. 779. Dendrophila frontalis, Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 388 ; Hume, 
Nests and Eggs, p. 161 ; Bl. Sf Wald. B. Burm. p. 112 ; SJiaijje, 8. F. iii. p. 436; 
Hume ^ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 201 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 560 ; Hume, S. F. yii. 
p. 459, viii. p. 90; Bingham, 8. F. ix. p. 171. Dendrophila corallina, Hume, 
8. F. iii. p. 89 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 633. 
Description. — Male. A broad band on the forehead and a long super- 
cilium black ; the whole upper plumage and wing-coverts blue ; wing 
blackish brown^ edged on the outer webs with blue except on the first two 
primaries ; the tertiaries almost entirely blue^ the blue edging disappearing 
on the central primaries ; central tail-feathers blue, the others blackish 
edged and tipped with bluish ; ear-coverts lilac ; chin and throat whitish ; 
lower plumage greyish lilac. 
The female differs in wanting the black supercilium. 
Iris yellow ; eyelids plumbeous ; bill coral-red ; mouth red ; feet 
pinkish brown; claws pale horn. The young have the bill black, pinkish 
at the gape and nostrils ; iris dark brown. In the young the bill is black 
and the iris brown. 
Length 5 inches, tail 1'7, wing 2 9, tarsus '7, bill from gape "7. The 
female is probably smaller. 
Mr. Sharpe maintains the Javan, Sumatran, and Bornean birds distinct 
from those inhabiting Burmah and India, on the grounds that the latter 
are larger, have a white throat and the under plumage less richly coloured. 
These differences do not seem to me to hold good. Horsfield^s type from 
Java has the wing 2*75 inches ; but another bird procured by Diard in the 
same island has the wing fully 2" 9 inches, which is quite as long as the 
wings of birds from Burmah. 
The under plumage is certainly richer-coloured in birds from Borneo 
and Java, and the throat is tinged with lilac, whereas Burmese birds have 
the throat albescent and the under plumage paler ; but I do not think 
that, at the best, they can be considered any thing more than races. 
Some Burmese birds have indications of lilac on the throat. 
The Velvet -fronted Nuthatch occurs over every portion of Pegu where 
there is thick forest ; but it is commoner on the hills than elsewhere. 
Mr. Blyth states that it occurs in Arrakan. Mr. Davison found it common 
throughout Tenasserim, except at elevations above 5000 feet, and Capt. 
Bingham states that it is fairly common in the Thoungyeen valley. 
Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay observed it on the Tsankoo hills and in Karennee. 
It is found throughout the Indo-Burmese countries, India and Ceylon, 
