363 
NUTHATCH. 
a streak of black ; the throat and cheeks are 
nearly pure white, and the rest of the under parts 
are buff orange ; upon the flanks and thighs 
chestnut brown ; the under tail coverts are white 
edged with chestnut brown ; the wings are 
brownish black ; the feathers forming the spurious 
quill edged with white ; the secondaries edged 
with gray ; the centre of the outer webs of 
the principal quills marked with grayish white, 
and forming, when the wing is closed, an indis- 
tinct diagonal bar across ; the tail, with the excep- 
tion of the centre feathers, is black at the base ; 
the tip of that next the centre greyish white, 
which colour increases in breadth to the outside, 
and shades into a bar of white across the two 
outer feathers. The female appears to vary by 
having the black on the sides of the neck running 
down for a less distance, and in wanting the 
chestnut on the flanks and under coverts. Mr 
Salmon mentions an unusual variety almost 
white, having only a few chocolate feathers on 
the breast, and here and there a dark feather 
intermixed with the rest of the plumage ; the legs 
and bill were quite white.* 
The next British form among the Certhiadoe is 
represented by the Wrens, Troglodytes, of which 
we possess a single species. The birds composing 
this genus are all of diminutive size, of plain and 
unobtrusive shades of brown, and are extremely 
* Loudon's Msg. Nat. Hist. VIII. p, 112. 
