SITTA VARIA. 
202 
of birds, from their supposed practice of breaking 
by repeated hatcbings, or hammerings with their bnb' 
Soft shelled nuts, such as chestnuts, chinkoj)ins, 
hazel nuts, they may, probably, he able to den)o!''.| 
though I have never yet seen them so cngiiged ; hot ' 
must he rather in search of maggots, that sonietit®.^ 
breed there, than for the kernel. It is, hou ever, ^'1 
that they lay up a large store of nuts for u inter S 
as I have never cither found any of their magaziiO'S’ 
seen them collecting them, I am inclined to doubt th| 
fact. From the great numbers I have opened at ^ 
season.s of the year, I have every reason to 
that ants, bun's, small seeds, insects, and their 
form their chief subsistence, such matters alone h'''^ 
uniformly found in their stomachs. Neither can I j 
what necessity they could have to circumambulate 
trunks of trees with such indefatigable and rcstl'^ 
diligence, while bushels of nuts lay scattered 
their roots. As to the circumstance mentioned hV 
Plott, of the European nuthatch “ putting its bill j 
a crack in the bough of a tree, and making s0|''' jf 
violent sound, as if it was rending asunder,” thi?>. j 
true, would be sufficient to distinguish it from * ^ 
species we have been just describing, n hich ]io.“SC^u 
no such faculty. The female differs little from the 1 
in colour, chiefly in the black being less deep ou . 
head and wings. I 
148 . SITTA FARIA, WILSON. —S/TVa CAKABENSIS, LIJiNiE''®' I 
RED-BELLIED BLACK-CaVPT NUTHATCH. 
WILSON, PLATE II. FIG. IV. 
This bird is much smaller than the last, measifflj^';; 
only four inches and a half in length, and eight ii'*^ 
in extent. In the form of its bill', tongue, nostril®) 
in tlie colour of the back and tail-feathers, it 
agrees with the former; the secondaries arc not 
with the deep black of the other specie.s, and the fr j 
feet, and claws, are of a dusky greenish yellow i 
