178 
THE WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. 
Feet brown. The upper part of the head and the hind neck deep black, 
glossed with blue, that colour curving down on either side of the neck at its 
base. The back, wing, and tail-coverts, and middle feathers of the tail liglit 
greyish-blue. Quills black, edged with bluish-grey ; three lateral tail feathers 
black, with a broad band of white near the end, the rest black, excepting the 
middle ones. The sides of the head, space above the eye, fore neck and 
breast white ; abdomen and lower tail-coverts brownish-red, with white tips ; 
under wing-coverts black. 
Length 5-J inches, extent of wings 11; bill along the ridge T \, along the 
gap 11; tarsus T 8 5 ; middle toe }§. 
Adult Female. 
The female resembles the male. 
Common from Texas to Maine. Throughout the interior to the Columbia. 
Resident. 
On the roof of the mouth are three anterior ridges, of which the middle is 
larger ; both mandibles are slightly concave, the lower with a median 
elevated line. Tongue 6 twelfths long, emarginate and finely papillate at the 
base, slender, very thin, the point abrupt, and terminated by several strong 
bristles. (Esophagus, a b c, 1 inch 10 twelfths 
long, funnel-shaped at the commencement, its width 
being there 4 twelfths, and then gradually dimi- 
nishing to 2 twelfths. The stomach, c d, is rather 
large, broadly elliptical ,! 2 twelfths long,6twelfths 
broad ; its lateral muscles thin ; the epithelium 
slightly rugous. It is filled with insects and larvae. 
Intestine, ef g h, rather short and wide, 7 inches 
in length, its greatest width 2 twelfths ; the rec- 
tum, i 3 twelfths wide ; the cloaca 4 twelfths ; 
the coeca, i, 2 twelfths long, 4 twelfth in breadth, 
and 10 twelfths from the extremity. The tra- 
chea is 1 \ inches long, 1 twelfth in breadth ; its 
/ rings feeble, 75 in number. The sterno-tracheal 
muscles very slender ; the inferior laryngeal form 
on each side a small knob, inserted into the last 
half ring in its whole extent. Bronchial half 
rings about 12. There is 011 each side an elon 
gated salivary gland, about f- twelfth in breadth. 
The hyoid bones are not unusually elongated. 
In the form of the tongue the Nuthatches resemble 
the Titmice. 
