BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH, 
195 
Loggerhead of Brown, Sitta Jamaicensis, Linn. ; and Sitta Canadensis 
of Linn., Gmel., and Briss., are names that have been originally applied 
to different individuals of the species we are 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, dur- 
ing 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 fcAV 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 Avell as by the Black- 
capped Titmouse, Parus atncapillus, and the Crested Titmouse, Parus 
bicolor, and not unfrequently by the small Spotted Woodpecker, Picus 
pnhesccns ; 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, toge- 
ther with the peculiar chatter of each, are altogether very amusing ; 
conveying the idea of hungry diligence, bustle and activity. Both these 
little birds, from the great quantity of destructive insects and larvae 
they destroy, both under the bark, and among the tender buds of our 
fruit and forest trees, are entitled to, and truly deserving of, our esteem 
and protection. 
Species III. SITTA PUSILLA. 
BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH. 
[Plate XV. Fig. 2.] 
Sitta pnsilla, Lath. Ind. Orn. 263. — Small Nuihaich, Catesby, Car. i., 22, upper 
figure. — La Petite Sittelle d tete hrune, Buff, v., 474. — Briss. hi., 598. — Lath. 
I., 651, C. 
This bird is chiefly an inhabitant of Virginia, and the southern 
states, and seems particularly fond of pine-trees. I have never yet 
discovered it either in Pennsylvania, or any of the regions north of this. 
Its manners are very similar to those of the Red-bellied Nuthatch, 
represented in Plate II. of this work ; but its notes are more shrill and 
chirping. In the countries it inhabits it is a constant resident ; and in 
winter associates with parties, of eight or ten, of its own species, who 
hunt busily from tree to tree, keeping up a perpetual screeping. It is 
a frequent companion of the Woodpecker figured beside it ; and you 
rarely find the one in the woods without observing or hearing the other 
