SPECIES 2. SITTA VARM. 
RED-BELLIED NUTHATCH. 
[Plate H. — Fig. 4.] 
Sitta Canadensis, Bkiss. hi, p, 592 . — Small JS'uthatch, Lath, i, 
651 . — Sitta Varia, Bart. p. 289. 
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 colour of the back 
and tail-feathers, it exactly agrees with the former; the seconda- 
ries 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 through the eye 
to the shoulder; below this is another line of white; the chin is 
white; the other under parts a light rust colour; the primaries 
and whole wings a dusky lead colour. 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, 
the 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 colours and general habits, it is 
probable that their mode of building, &c. may be also similar. 
